This year, the denim brand wars took off in a major way thanks to a handful of ad campaigns that got the world talking. From Beyoncé’s year-long Levi’s partnership to Addison Rae’s collaboration with Lucky Jeans (and, of course, American Eagle’s much-discussed Sydney Sweeney commercials), we’re in a booming era of celebrity-centered jeans marketing. However, one commercial in particular got the world not only talking, but dancing, sparking a wave of fan-made content in the process.
If “Milkshake” is already playing in your head, then you know where we’re going with this one: Gap’s music video-esque commercial featuring girl group superstars Katseye is one of the most well-received of the year. And according to the brand itself, it may be “one of the most iconic brand campaigns that we’ve done.” We used our social listening and analytics solution to examine the buzz around this runaway success of a campaign.
What is the Katseye x Gap “Milkshake” commercial?
On August 19, Gap premiered the latest commercial in its Better in Denim campaign, and it took off with a bang. Starring multicultural girl group Katseye in an energizing dance number to Kelis’s 2003 hit “Milkshake”, the ad mixes Y2K nostalgia with K-pop hype to highlight the brand’s line of Long & Lean jeans. According to Gap, the Katseye ad has already outperformed its four previous releases combined, including those from 2024 featuring Tyla and Troye Sivan, respectively.
How much buzz did the Katseye Gap ad generate, and what drove it?
From August 17 to September 1, 2025, there were about 131,000 mentions of the Katseye Gap ad across social, digital, and traditional media sources. After an initial discussion spike for the campaign’s August 19 premiere, mentions surged again on August 24, with the vast majority being positive.
On one hand, that second bump was fueled by Gap’s steady stream of bonus content across social channels, like this dance tutorial from choreographer Robbie Blue and this video profile of creative director Humberto Leon. It was fueled, on the other hand, by highly-engaged fan- and influencer-made content recreating, reinterpreting, and reacting to the commercial, or even just documenting it. For example, this 11-second YouTube Short posted by a Katseye fan simply shows footage of a screen displaying the ad in a Gap store set to Katseye’s “Gnarly”. Despite how basic it is, the Short has garnered 1.5 million views in only 12 days. As we saw with the success of KPop Demon Hunters, bonus and fan-made content have been huge forces in the Gap Katseye campaign’s social media virality.
Lastly, media coverage and analysis of the campaign also helped boost discussion in the week after its premiere. In particular, far-reaching articles from MSN.com, AOL, and CNN Entertainment praising the campaign for its inclusivity and timeliness helped boost the positive sentiment spike.
For Gap as a company, the commercial’s success paid off in a 171% increase in brand mentions during the time period analyzed, with positive mentions surging by 286%. The most-used phrase of the conversation? “Gap campaign”.
Lessons for marketers from the Gap x Katseye campaign
Not every brand can count on superstar endorsements for their next marketing hit, but the Better in Denim campaign does offer some more universal lessons:
Give fans lots of bite-sized content to engage with. From behind-the-scenes footage to cast and crew featurettes, Gap gave fans a lot of content to consume and remix themselves. As a result, the campaign generated discussion over time instead of being a much-hyped flash in the pan. In your own campaigns, see how to build in audience participation from the ground up with content that will deepen their interest instead of as an afterthought.
Cultural intelligence is foundational. Gap truly knew how to read its audience when it decided to go full-force on artistry, Y2K aesthetics, and cultural diversity for this campaign. Other brands can do the same, using social listening to understand both the zeitgeist and their audience’s place within it.
