What started out as a fairly straightforward brand partnership for actor Sydney Sweeney has quickly become a mammoth headache.
Her latest ad campaign, in partnership with denim brand American Eagle, has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Called “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” it features the actor wearing the line’s newest products, in particular her custom ‘Sydney Jean’.
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour,” Sweeney says during the ad. “My jeans are blue.”
The campaign itself appears to be a reference to a 1980s Calvin Klein campaign, which starred actor Brooke Shields and also included a play on words between ‘genes’ and ‘jeans.’
However, Sweeney’s ad has sparked significant backlash from vast sections of the Internet. Here’s what you need to know.
What’s going on?
A mixture of things. Many Internet commentators have noted how the blond, blue-eyed actor’s casting as the face of such a prominent American brand, at a time when diversity initiatives are being rolled back across the US, looks regressive in the extreme.
In a TikTok video, Sayantani DasGupta, a lecturer at Columbia University, noted that the campaign was “really imbued with eugenic messaging”, comparing its tagline to comments President Trump made in 2020, where he praised Minnesotans for having “good genes.”
“It is both a testament to this political moment, and it’s contributing to and reinforcing this kind of anti-immigrant, anti-people of colour, pro-eugenic political moment,” they added.
“I think what’s getting people talking… is how regressive the ads seem,” Rachel Tashjian told The New York Post. “The line about [Sweeney] having great jeans – several people are suggesting… that this is a ‘pro-eugenics ad.’ Whether or not that’s the case, it is part of a wave of imagery of influencers, pop stars and musicians that feels tethered to the values of another time.”
It is true that phrases like “good genes” have historically been used by eugenicists, many of whom believe that by breeding selected members of the human race, a ‘master race’ can be created. The same line of thinking also celebrates thinness, whiteness, as well as (often) blonde hair and blue eyes.
What has the Internet been saying?
The commenters haven’t been kind.
“I like Sydney Sweeney and American Eagle as much as the next guy but ‘we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children’ is a crazy tagline for selling jeans,” one person wrote on X.
“Sydney Sweeney is a great example of white supremacy being the only way a lot of people derive self-esteem,” another added. “She starred in two shows where she played the less hot friend to a dark-haired and brown skinned woman and tried to steal their man for validation in both shows.”
“This is what happens when you have no people of color in a room. Particularly in a time like this,” another person wrote on Instagram. “This ad campaign got so caught up in this ‘clever’ play on words and this stunt, the people in the room missed what was so blatantly obvious to anyone not White.”
Unfortunately, the storm around the ad is such that an important part of the campaign, highlighting domestic violence, has also gone under the radar.
In a press release accompanying the ad, American Eagle noted that there was a “butterfly motif on the back pocket of [The Sydney Jean that] represents domestic violence awareness.” In addition, 100 per cent of the proceeds from the Sydney Jeans sold are being donated to Crisis Text Line, which offers confidential mental health support to those who need it.
What have American Eagle and Sweeney said?
So far, neither the brand nor the actor has commented on the storm.
However, this isn’t the first time Sweeney has been at the centre of controversy.
In July, she was criticised thanks to her links to controversial billionaire Jeff Bezos. Not only did she attend his wedding in Venice, but it was also reported that she is joining forces with him on a new lingerie range. The link between Bezos and Sweeney has “polarised her fans and critics in equal measure”, an insider told US Weekly.
In May, the actor made headlines when she launched a soap called Bathwater Bliss which contained (apparently) her actual bathwater.
“When your fans start asking for your bathwater, you can either ignore it, or turn it into a bar of Dr. Squatch soap,” she said in a press release. Though only 5,000 bars of the $8 soap were made, they sold out within minutes, and were quickly being resold on sites like eBay for $100-$200 a bar.
