Gap’s latest “Better In Denim” jeans ad, featuring the contrived multicultural girl group Katseye dancing to “Milkshake,” comes across as a knee-jerk response to American Eagle’s wildly successful “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” campaign, but the obvious pandering to diversity quotas feels like a pathetic overcorrection that misses the mark on genuine appeal and reeks of corporate desperation to stay “relevant” in a polarized market.

Why it matters: Gap’s push for progressive, forced diversity in marketing not only highlights the brand’s struggle to compete with more authentic campaigns but also exposes how companies like Gap resort to checkbox inclusivity to virtue-signal, potentially alienating consumers who see through the superficiality and prefer brands that focus on product quality over political posturing, a trend that’s increasingly backfiring in today’s divided cultural landscape.

Driving the news: Gap unveiled its campaign less than a month after American Eagle’s, using Katseye’s diverse lineup to emphasize self-expression through music and dance.

• Gap’s ad spotlights Katseye—members from the U.S., Philippines, South Korea, and Switzerland—performing to “Milkshake” in denim, a stark contrast to Sweeney’s solo, bust-focused charm.
• Brand President Mark Breitbard called it “fresh, relevant, original,” but it screams overcompensation amid the Sweeney backlash.
• Katseye members noted, “Gap didn’t ask us to fit in — they invited us to show up as we are,” yet the ad’s inclusivity looks scripted, lacking the organic fun of American Eagle’s approach.

Catch up quick: American Eagle’s summer ads with Sydney Sweeney cleverly played on her figure for “Great Jeans,” but a fringe group cried white supremacy, amplified by both sides. Gap, lagging in cultural relevance, jumped in with Katseye—a 2024-formed group with 5 million Instagram followers and albums like SIS (Soft is Strong)—to push “self-expression,” but it lands as a lame attempt to virtue-signal.

The intrigue: Gap’s timing, less than a month after Sweeney’s ads, suggests they’re chasing controversy for clout, but using a group like Katseye feels like a cheap shot at diversity optics rather than smart marketing. The ad’s forced multiculturalism ignores that consumers buy jeans for fit and style, not social lectures—Gap’s pivot looks like a desperate bid to counter Sweeney’s natural appeal with contrived inclusivity.

The bottom line: Gap’s Katseye ad is a stupid, woke disaster that mocks genuine diversity by weaponizing it against American Eagle’s fun Sweeney campaign—brands should stick to selling clothes, not agendas, but Gap’s desperate pivot to multicultural pandering only highlights how out of touch they are, potentially driving away customers who see through the forced inclusivity and prefer authentic marketing over corporate virtue-signaling.