Actress Sydney Sweeney has recently come under fire for her role in an American Eagle ad campaign which talks about her “great jeans.” Some are claiming the ad openly alludes to eugenics as it makes use of the play on words between “jeans” and “genes.”
The latest ad campaign from American Eagle features Sweeney modelling the jeans along with a denim jacket in some of the clips. Most of the ads feature the 27-year-old actress posing in the jeans as she talks directly to the viewer. In one ad she can be seen adjusting the waistline of her jeans before saying, “I bet you want to try these jeans,” in another she talks more about how the jeans are comfortable and “make your butt look amazing.”
sydney sweeney for american eagle (2025) pic.twitter.com/as3A14zWXn
— cinesthetic. (@TheCinesthetic) July 23, 2025
All of the ads end with the same tagline, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” the obvious allusion to “genes” has raised a few eyebrows. However, some of the other ads go further with the messaging, in one clip, Sweeney says, “My body’s composition is determined by my jeans (genes).” As she’s saying this the camera begins to pan down before the actress calls out, “Hey! Eyes up here.”
It feels somewhat regressive in the sense that the ad uses the actress to appeal to the male gaze. While this isn’t entirely unexpected for Sweeney, the main issue people have with the whole thing is the underlying message.
Does the Sydney Sweeney ad feature Nazi propaganda?
People online believe that the language used in the ads is an intentional “dog-whistle” alluding to eugenics. Eugenics is essentially the concept that the human race can be improved by selective breeding. It was a key part of Nazi beliefs with the whole idea of white individuals with blonde hair and blue eyes being the “master race.”
The fact that American Eagle specifically chose Sweeney, a white woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, to be the face of an ad campaign that draws attention to genetics seems intentional and many believe that it is. On X one person wrote, “this is just clear eugenicist propaganda. Y’all weren’t kidding at all.” Meanwhile, on TikTok another person accused Sweeney of playing into all the alt-right fantasies of what a woman should be.
Not everyone agreed that the ad was intentionally about eugenics, some just claimed that it was supposed to be a clever play on words. This is certainly possible, not everything is a huge conspiracy and some of the connections people are making seem rather far-fetched.
But then again, the talk about genetics isn’t the only issue people had with the ad. Some called out the overtly sexual nature and the fact that it seemed like a callback to the Brooke Shields Calvin Klein ads from the eighties. At the time Shields was only 15-years-old when she modelled for the campaign.
American Eagle soars
Whatever the general consensus of the ad is, it seems to have done its job. On X, people claimed that the company’s shares had risen a great deal after unveiling the ad campaign.
Beautiful woman, cool car,
— leilani dowding
I’m Sold!! American Eagle stocks up 16% in last 5 days …
Because of the “woke backlash” I’ve just seen this ad… I’m absolutely buying some American Eagle Jeans.
The absolute opposite to unhealthy, obese, trans sexless lot we’ve seen in ads!!… pic.twitter.com/R5Manfa9Cl
(@LeilaniDowding) July 28, 2025
Meanwhile, others have vowed to buy the jeans simply to spite the “woke” individuals calling out American Eagle and Sydney Sweeney. Plenty of men also vowed to buy the jeans despite them being for women, but then again, random men online often seem to act weird around the actress.
Of course, it’s unclear whether the new ads will be positive or negative for the company in the long run. We’ll just have to wait until the dust settles.
