By Amara Osei

Reformation cast influencer Olivia Jade Giannulli—the face of the 2019 college admissions scandal—in its fall 2026 campaign, selling a sweatshirt that reads "College." The reference is not subtle. Neither is the risk.

In 2019, Olivia Jade's parents, Full House actress Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud in the federal case known as Operation Varsity Blues, which exposed a ring of cheating, fraud and bribery used to gain admission to elite colleges. Olivia Jade's admission to the University of Southern California had been bolstered by a fake recruitment to the school's rowing team. She unenrolled and took a social media hiatus. Seven years later, she fronts Reformation's "Good Sport" campaign, with copy that reads: "We brought her back to campus for a lesson in dressing for sport." Comments on Reformation's Instagram post split between "iconic" and "insensitive."

Is any publicity good publicity?

No, according to Derek Rucker, professor of entrepreneurial studies in marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "People will sometimes ask, 'But isn't any publicity good publicity?'" Rucker said. "The answer to that is definitively no." He said brands that stumble into controversy risk lost sales and lost audience, and can spend more money atoning for a misstep than they spent on the campaign itself.

When is controversy a deliberate strategy?

Sometimes the alienation is the point. Rucker pointed to Nike's 2018 "Dream Crazy" campaign starring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose kneeling protest during the national anthem made him a polarizing figure. "They're not surprised. This is classic Nike," Rucker said of his students' reaction. "They're betting that the audience that likes the brand and values those values is bigger than the audience that doesn't, and so that's where it becomes a strategy."

Rucker also noted that scandal can be more tenable for smaller businesses, where the risk of alienating a large audience is lower. Sports prediction market Novig's recent campaign, starring a nearly nude Sydney Sweeney, drew criticism for sexualizing women in sports—but its core audience of sports bettors may not have reacted the same way. Stephen Warren, a professor of communications at Northeastern University, told Northeastern Global News that the fired-up reaction did more advertising work than the ad itself.

Reformation's case is different. The company went public recently and aims to reach a broad base of Millennial and Gen Z fashion consumers. Rucker allowed that the brand may have judged the degree of controversy too small to worry about. "Sometimes what happens is part of the creative process is you have to break through," he said. "That's where we have a conversation of, like, 'Okay, but could the controversy be costly?'" Reformation did not respond to an interview request.

What signals that a brand meant it?

Rucker identified two markers: a charitable donation attached to the campaign, and the refusal to apologize once backlash arrives. Reformation's "College" crewneck sends net proceeds to YES Scholars, a nonprofit supporting underprivileged students in Los Angeles, New York City and rural Appalachian North Carolina. Last year, American Eagle's denim campaign starring Sweeney—criticized for what some called eugenics-coded language—directed a portion of proceeds from its "Sydney" jean to the Crisis Text Line, which provides free mental health support and crisis intervention.

Rucker doubts the charity offsets much. "It maybe makes it a little harder to attack, but my view is, those brands, especially with things around Sydney Sweeney from what I've seen, these are done with intent. This is not unintended controversy," he said. "They're not going to apologize because they're not actually sorry. They're actually trying to target a particular consumer audience." Reformation has issued no apology; American Eagle CMO Craig Brommers previously told Marketing Brew the denim campaign was "worth every single dollar."

What does real contrition look like?

Unintended controversy demands a faster playbook. Converse recently pulled images from a global campaign featuring K-pop star Karina after audiences said an image—showing her in a white skirt lit by a triangular spotlight beside dangling sneakers, plus a second image of shoes hanging from a tree—resembled Ku Klux Klan and lynching imagery. The brand apologized in a statement: "We're sorry. We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong. We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared. This should not have happened and we will do better."

Rucker said an immediate apology and removal is the correct response in such cases, and that stumbles can expose weak internal review. "Good brands have checks and balances," he said. "When something goes wrong, what do you do? Explain to the consumer what happened. Take accountability and get rid of it as quickly as you can."

Controversy, in Rucker's framing, is a microscope—useful for differentiation in mature categories, but only for brands that have counted the audience they will lose. Asked whether he would build a brand on it, Rucker said: "I wouldn't go the way of controversy, because I know there's a lot of ways to succeed that don't involve that."