{"id":24661,"date":"2026-05-01T17:17:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T17:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/24661\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T17:17:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T17:17:25","slug":"aerie-leans-into-real-with-a-no-ai-promise-as-consumer-backlash-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/24661\/","title":{"rendered":"Aerie leans into \u2018real\u2019 with a no-AI promise as consumer backlash grows"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been so interesting recently to watch the divide in how people feel about AI growing. This isn\u2019t entirely a gender gap, as has been speculated. Instead, it\u2019s between business leaders, who are all in, and the rest of the population. We saw this clearly a few weeks ago, when Reese Witherspoon posted a call for women to learn how to use AI tools to avoid being \u201cleft behind.\u201d It would have been right at home on LinkedIn<\/a>, but went over terribly with her Instagram<\/a> audience, so much so that she had to post again clarifying<\/a>. \u201cI want to acknowledge people\u2019s concerns, they are valid,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m aware of the impact this could have on jobs across so many industries. I understand environmental concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s a consumer brand\u2014caught between business table-stakes and consumer sentiment\u2014to do? We\u2019re seeing one example at Aerie, the $2 billion sub-brand of American Eagle Outfitters<\/a>. My colleague Phil Wahba has a new story<\/a> featuring Jen Foyle, now president and executive creative director of American Eagle and Aerie. Foyle joined the company in 2010, and Aerie was only a $225 million brand when she started. <\/p>\n

She was responsible for growing Aerie into a powerhouse competitor to Victoria\u2019s Secret<\/a>. Key to that growth was the brand\u2019s 2014 \u201cAerie Real\u201d pledge, which promised to embrace \u201creal\u201d bodies and not to retouch models. That was a pioneering choice at the time. <\/p>\n

So today\u2019s version of that strategy? A no-AI pledge. \u201cNo AI-generated bodies or people,\u201d the brand has promised. It even has a new campaign with Pamela Anderson contrasting the lifelessness of AI models with the vivacity of real women. <\/p>\n

\u201cAerie Real was just celebrating women for who they are,\u201d Foyle told Phil, \u201cand so now we are going to go to the next level with it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cReal\u201d has been at the core of the Aerie brand for more than a decade\u2014so it\u2019s a smart choice for the brand. It\u2019s a commitment Aerie needs to be sure about\u2014eagle-eyed consumers would be quick to spot anything that looks like AI at a brand that has promised them otherwise. Read Phil\u2019s full story here<\/a> for more on this strategy and what\u2019s next for Aerie. <\/p>\n

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune\u2019s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES<\/p>\n

Casey Means won’t be surgeon general.\u00a0President Trump has withdrawn the MAHA influencer’s nomination, which has been stalled for almost a year. His replacement is<\/a> Nicole Saphier, a Fox News contributor and radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lessons from America’s highest-earning women.\u00a0Earning more than $775,000 a year puts you in the top 1% of earners in the U.S. According to new research, two-thirds of women who meet that threshold don’t consider themselves unique or unusual. They’re more likely to be married or have children. One-fifth experienced times in their childhoods when the main breadwinners in their homes were unemployed, the WSJ reports<\/a>\u2014a higher rate than among women earning salaries in the lower six figures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What’s going on with Lululemon’s incoming CEO?\u00a0Heidi O’Neill hasn’t started yet. Wall Street hasn’t been happy<\/a> (the stock fell 13% day of the announcement) and is still concerned about whether the Nike alum is right to be the architect of a major turnaround the brand needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Denmark’s PM gives up on a wealth tax.\u00a0Mette Frederiksen had proposed the idea<\/a>, but with a disappointing result in Denmark’s most recent election, she needs the support of the centrist party to form a new government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ON MY RADAR<\/p>\n

Is Yoko Ono still our most radical artist?\u00a0T Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rothschild dynasty survived wars and crises. Will the Epstein files tear it apart?\u00a0WSJ<\/a><\/p>\n

Women want to live forever, too: How longevity became women’s business\u00a0Elle<\/a><\/p>\n

PARTING WORDS<\/p>\n

“We focus on inviting you into this whole entire world that really fits into your lifestyle. And I think that goes so far beyond skin care.”<\/p>\n

\u2014 Hailey Bieber on Rhode. The brand is one of\u00a0Time’s 100 most influential companies<\/a> of 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been so interesting recently to watch the divide in how people feel about AI growing. This isn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,501,15720,2006,2007,2008,1379],"class_list":{"0":"post-24661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-career","11":"tag-clothing-and-apparel","12":"tag-most-powerful-women","13":"tag-mpw-daily","14":"tag-no-copyright","15":"tag-retail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}