By Leena Nasir

Copyright dailycaller

American Eagle CEO Jay Schottenstein brushed off the barrage of criticism over the Sydney Sweeney campaign Monday and responded with a message of defiance.

The campaign went viral over allegations of racism oversexualization, but in the face of the fiery backlash, the 71-year-old retail boss refused to back down on his decision to run the ads in an interview with the The Wall Street Journal. Schottenstein firmly stood his ground and issued instructions for his staff to do the same.

He urged executives to stay calm, barred employees from commenting online and handed the job of tracking social media fallout to a small in-house team. To get a read on the public mood, he even brought in a polling firm. One thing he never considered? Yanking the ads.

“You can’t run from fear,” Schottenstein said in his first interview on the campaign. “We stand behind what we did.”

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The billionaire CEO wasn’t blindsided by the campaign. He told the publication that he personally greenlit the Sweeney ads before they hit on July 23, and he’s showing no signs of regret now that the dust has settled.

Marketing pundits suggested the culture war could hit the clothing brand’s sales, noting the plights of firms such as Target and Cracker Barrel, The Wall Street Journal reported. Despite the concern, American Eagle maintained their position and soon witnessed a sharp increase in sales.

The Sweeney ads helped secure almost a million new customers from July to September, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Sweeney Cinched Waist denim jacket sold out a day after it launched, and the Sydney Jean, an ultrawide leg featuring a butterfly atop its back pocket, cleared out in a week’s time.

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CEO Susan Cantor of Sterling Brands, a consumer branding firm, credited Schottenstein’s decision to hold firm as the reason American Eagle remained standing. (RELATED: Travis Kelce Announces Collaboration With American Eagle Weeks After Sydney Sweeney’s Campaign)

“By sticking to their guns, they gained customers” she said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Schottenstein’s comments come after the company doubled down on the ad campaign in a statement in August. “‘Sydney Sweeney has great jeans’ has always been about the jeans,” they wrote online. “Great jeans look good on everyone.”