When Cool Beats Controversy: Gap’s Denim Reset

The Backlash Gap Avoided

KATSEYE, W Magazine

As I’ve written before on this blog, fashion has a long and well-documented addiction to shock value. Outrage has become a marketing tactic: provoke, trend, and ride the wave of backlash into visibility. One of the most glaring recent examples is American Eagle’s campaign fronted by Sydney Sweeney, where a pun on “jeans” and “genes” was rightly criticised for its eugenics undertones. The controversy wasn’t a side effect—it was the point.

But as I argued then, this strategy has an expiry date. Audiences, especially Gen Z and Gen Alpha, are becoming increasingly resistant to manufactured provocation. This generation is fluent in media, quick to call out inauthenticity, and far more likely to reward brands that feel aligned with their values rather than those courting outrage for attention’s sake. Shock might buy a headline, but it no longer guarantees cultural relevance.

Enter Gap. On 19 August, the brand released its new denim campaign starring global girl group KATSEYE. It couldn’t have been a sharper contrast: a three-minute burst of energy built on joy, inclusivity, and Y2K nostalgia. Low-rise jeans, a remix of Kelis’s Milkshake, choreography that begged to be replicated on TikTok—this was marketing engineered not for outrage, but for delight.

The impact was immediate. Fans embraced it, media outlets hailed it as Gap’s most relevant ad in years, and social feeds filled with recreations of the dance. Crucially, it reminded the industry of a lesson it seems intent on forgetting: you don’t need to stir controversy to make an impact. Sometimes the simplest route—authenticity, fun, cultural timing—is the most effective. Gap didn’t just sell denim; it reset the tone of what a fashion campaign can be.

Meet the Movers: KATSEYE & Denim That Dances

KATSEYE Gap Denim Spot, ELLE Magazine

To understand why this campaign struck such a chord, we need to start with its stars. KATSEYE is a six-member girl group formed under Geffen Records and HYBE, the powerhouse behind BTS. Each member brings her own cultural richness: Daniela is Cuban-Venezuelan American, Lara is Indian-American, Manon is Swiss with Swiss-Italian and Ghanaian roots, Megan is Chinese-Singaporean American, Sophia is Filipino, and Yoonchae is South Korean. In many ways, they are the perfect cultural ambassadors for a brand attempting to reconnect with younger audiences.

KATSEYE’s aesthetic has always leaned into Y2K references, making them an almost inevitable fit for Gap’s denim revival. Their styling—low-rise jeans, layered tops, playful accessories—channels an era currently enjoying a full-fledged renaissance. Pair that with Kelis’s Milkshake, a track that defined early-2000s pop culture, and the campaign becomes a love letter to nostalgia while still feeling contemporary. It’s savvy marketing: looking back, but speaking directly to today’s youth culture.

Where this ad truly differentiates itself is in tone. Traditional denim advertising has long been anchored in sex appeal—provocative imagery, brooding models, heavily stylised gloss. Gap chose a different path. Rather than seduction, the campaign offers joy: exuberant choreography, colour, movement, and a sense of shared celebration. Dance, after all, is the universal language of TikTok and Reels, and Gap tapped it with precision.

The choice of KATSEYE is not only visually compelling but strategically resonant. Their fan base is global, digitally native, and deeply engaged—exactly the audience Gap needs to win back. By aligning with a group whose identity is already built on inclusivity and cross-cultural appeal, the brand didn’t just rent relevance; it partnered with it.

The result is a campaign that feels less like an advertisement and more like a cultural moment: an authentic intersection of music, fashion and nostalgia that invites viewers not to watch, but to participate.

Joy Without the Shock

KATSEYE/Sydney Sweeney, Netflix Junkie

Let’s clear something up straight away: Gap did not create its KATSEYE campaign as a direct response to American Eagle. The timelines simply don’t add up. Both ads were released within a month of each other—far too short a window to conceive, cast, license, choreograph, film and roll out a global campaign. Take the soundtrack alone. To use Milkshake, Gap would have had to secure two separate rights: a synchronisation licence (covering the composition from the songwriter or publisher) and a master use licence (covering Kelis’s original recording from the label) (Artyfile, 2025). Negotiating those clearances for a high-profile track can take weeks, if not months (Artyfile, 2025). Add in choreography, rehearsals, internal approvals, legal sign-off, filming, editing and media planning, and it becomes obvious this was long in motion before American Eagle’s controversy erupted.

Still, it’s natural to draw comparisons, if only because the timing is uncanny and the contrast so sharp. American Eagle’s ad was spectacularly tone-deaf: a clumsy pun on “jeans” and “genes” that evoked eugenics rhetoric in a cultural moment hyper-attuned to exclusionary messaging. The failure to anticipate how such a slogan might land showed a brand desperate to be edgy without grasping the wider context.

Gap’s ad, by contrast, proved the point I’ve made before: attention isn’t what brands should be chasing. American Eagle got attention, yes—but mostly the wrong kind. According to YouGov, 78% of conservatives approved of the campaign, but that’s hardly useful when your target consumers are Gen Z and Millennials, both overwhelmingly progressive. Analysts took note: by late August, Bank of America downgraded American Eagle’s stock to Underperform, projecting a 20–30% slide (Barron’s, 2025).

In contrast, Gap’s KATSEYE ad resonated for all the right reasons: vibrancy, nostalgia, and inclusivity. Business of Fashion reported that it became Gap’s most viral campaign ever, with quotes like “When you put easy, uplifting content in the world, people gravitate” from Gap’s CMO (Business of Fashion, 2025). Furthermore, the video amassed nearly 20 million Instagram views through Reels and festive choreography (ContentGrip, 2025). Not outrage. Not backlash. Just joy.

Building Buzz the Right Way

Gap x KATSEYE Poster, No Manners Magazine

Gap’s Better in Denim campaign was not only a creative triumph, it was a masterclass in execution. The strategy was social-first, designed to thrive on the platforms where cultural momentum is created today. The ad was shown across TikTok and Instagram Reels, immediately seeding choreography challenges and inviting users to join in. With KATSEYE’s own members reposting and amplifying fan recreations, the campaign quickly blurred the line between brand content and organic fan culture. Unlike traditional advertising, which often pushes a message outwards, this felt participatory—viewers weren’t just watching the ad, they were remixing it.

Offline, Gap amplified the digital buzz with physical visibility. The billboard in Times Square ensured the campaign transcended phones to dominate the real-world stage (Marketing Dive, 2025). Gap also dropped a limited-edition KATSEYE logo hoodie in partnership with the group (Marketing Dive, 2025), stoking hype with hype-worthy merch. The blend of online virality and offline spectacle gave the campaign a dual resonance—shared, clicked, and streamed, but also seen, photographed and remembered.

 What’s remarkable is how little the campaign relied on shock headlines. Where many fashion ads chase provocation to get noticed, Gap leaned into cultural fluency—music, dance, nostalgia—and trusted that joy would generate its own momentum. And it did. Reports show that the campaign achieved record-high engagement, with the video becoming Gap’s most-liked Instagram post and TikTok video, and performing 100× better than the brand’s 2025 average (Business of Fashion, 2025). Moreover, the campaign amassed an earned media value of more than $1.7 million—surpassing prior campaigns like the Parker Posey “Feels Like Gap” campaign at $1.1 million (Business of Fashion, 2025). Proof that in 2025, the smartest marketing isn’t loudest or most controversial—it’s the kind that makes people want to join in.

Fan Love Speaks Louder

KATSEYE Gap Denim Spot, Cosmopolitan

What propelled Gap’s KATSEYE campaign into viral territory wasn’t clever media buys or a manufactured stunt, but the sheer volume of authentic responses. TikTok recreations, Reddit threads and glowing fan commentary made the spot feel alive in culture. One Reddit user summed it up perfectly: “I haven’t considered purchasing anything from Gap in years, but this ad did work on me.” (Business of Fashion, 2025). That is the holy grail of marketing—winning back a lapsed customer through joy and relatability rather than outrage.

Of course, no campaign escapes critique. Predictably, there was pushback from conservatives online, including one tweet branding it “woke garbage” that amassed 41,000 likes (Forbes, 2025). But criticism wasn’t confined to politics. Others lamented the lack of visible body diversity, noting that while the spot was praised for cultural inclusion, it still showcased slim, conventionally attractive performers (Glamour, 2025). It’s a fair observation in a climate where audiences expect broader representation—though it overlooks the fact that Gap didn’t assemble the group themselves. KATSEYE’s line-up was pre-determined by HYBE and Geffen Records. Gap partnered with them because they resonate so strongly with Gen Z globally: their multiculturalism embodies diversity, and their style and music and dance energy aligns authentically with Gap’s own heritage (Forbes, 2025). That authenticity is what matters.

In the end, the balance of responses skewed overwhelmingly positive. Enthusiasm was fuelled not by controversy but by joy, nostalgia and infectious energy. The campaign’s momentum built organically, powered by fans rather than detractors—proof that cultural resonance can be achieved through sincerity, fun and inclusivity, not provocation.

Why This Matters for Brands in 2025

KATSEYE, ELLE Singapore

The Gap × KATSEYE campaign is more than just a viral denim moment; it’s a case study in how brands can remain not only relevant but admired in 2025 without resorting to outrage. Its success highlights a truth the fashion industry has often resisted: authenticity, nostalgia and inclusivity are far more enduring currencies than provocation.

For decades, fashion marketing has flirted with spectacle. Shock-driven campaigns—whether hyper-sexualised imagery, tone-deaf casting or slogan-heavy “statements”—were designed to spark headlines and social chatter. Yet this reliance on provocation functions as little more than a sugar rush: a fleeting spike in attention followed swiftly by fatigue, distrust and, all too often, reputational scars that linger long after the campaign fades. Gap’s joyful, choreography-driven spot cut in the opposite direction. It leaned into nostalgia, cultural diversity and light-hearted fun, proving that positive emotion compounds—strengthening brand equity instead of corroding it. Research underscores this shift: nostalgia is now among the strongest drivers of trust and emotional engagement, with 75% of consumers more likely to purchase when a campaign evokes the past (Amra and Elma, 2025). Crucially, though, such strategies only succeed when they feel rooted in genuine brand heritage rather than gimmickry—precisely the path Gap took with KATSEYE.

This is especially critical in a climate where consumers are increasingly resistant to what they perceive as “rage-bait” advertising. Audiences—particularly Gen Z—are sceptical of marketing that feels manipulative or sensational. As Newsweek reported, fans praised Gap’s campaign precisely because it rejected outrage in favour of joy and self-expression (Newsweek, 2025).

The broader cultural backdrop reinforces this tonal reset. Just as “quiet luxury” has risen in response to fatigue with logo-saturated excess, marketing too is shifting towards reassurance, resonance and clarity. Consumers weary of political polarisation, economic strain and digital noise are gravitating towards campaigns that feel uplifting and authentic. Gap’s denim reset meets this appetite with precision: a nod to Y2K nostalgia, a celebration of international identity, and a refusal to overcomplicate.

For brands, the lesson is urgent. Relevance in 2025 is not about volume but alignment. Campaigns that connect through cultural intelligence and authenticity will outlast the news cycle. Those chasing provocation may burn brightly, but they fade quickly. In a market saturated with noise, cool beats chaos—and joy endures long after outrage burns out.

Cool, Not Clickbait

KATSEYE, W Magazine

In the end, Gap’s “Better in Denim” campaign is proof that cool will always outlast controversy. Where American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ad spiralled into backlash—hailed by conservatives, condemned by critics, and picked apart for all the wrong reasons—Gap managed to steal the spotlight with nothing more than joy, nostalgia and cultural timing.

The brilliance lay in what it didn’t do. It didn’t posture. It didn’t try to provoke. It didn’t chase headlines by fanning outrage. Instead, it tapped into dance, inclusivity and Y2K energy, and trusted that positivity could travel further than provocation. The results speak for themselves: a viral win, genuine fan excitement, and a cultural reset for a brand that had been dismissed as past its prime.

In a marketing landscape obsessed with hot takes and engineered drama, Gap quietly reminded us of a truth fashion often forgets: attention isn’t the same as resonance. Outrage can trend, but it rarely endures. Joy, on the other hand, lingers—it invites people in, makes them want to belong, and gives them reasons to return.

Maybe the coolest thing a brand can do in 2025 isn’t to shout louder. It’s to keep it joyful.