Fans React To Sydney Sweeney American Eagle Ads

Sydney Sweeney’s new ads for clothing retailer American Eagle, which play off the words “genes” and “jeans,” have left some social media users convinced it’s promoting white supremacy.

In one ad, the camera pans up Sweeney’s legs as she’s lying down and zipping up her jeans. She says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color.” The camera reaches her face by the time she says, “My jeans are blue.” The narrator then says the tagline: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”

Social media users expressed their discomfort with the ads, including TikTok user @hopeyoufindyourdad, who pointed out the ad’s double entendre in a post with more than 790,000 views.

“They could have chosen a number of angles to go about this campaign, but saying that about a blonde-hair, blue-eyed woman right now who’s dressed all like yeehaw America — that says a lot,” the user said, adding, “It’s pretty obviously promoting European Centrism.”

The Instagram account Style Analytics called the ad “a nod to eugenics, aligning the brand with the growing conservative/right-wing/white supremacy movement” in a post.

On American Eagle’s Instagram, users have left negative comments under the posts with Sweeney’s ads. One user wrote, “I almost forgot about American Eagle. Thanks for reminding why I ditched the brand years ago.” Under a photo of Sweeney and her dog, a German shepherd, one user wrote, “Blonde girl, blue eyes, denim, and a German Shepherd. So we’re just cosplaying 1939 now?”

Neither American Eagle or Sweeney’s reps immediately responded to requests for comment.

In a news release from when the ads were launched last week, American Eagle said the campaign “is a return to essential denim dressing and a celebration of what the beloved brand does best: making customers look and feel good in AE Jeans.”

American Eagle is also releasing the limited edition “The Sydney Jean,” in collaboration with Sweeney. The jean has a butterfly on its back pocket to represent domestic violence awareness, which, according to the news release, Sweeney is passionate about. To support the cause, the company said that 100% of the purchase price from “The Sydney Jean” will be donated to Crisis Text Line.

One social media user wrote, “If you watched those Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ads you’d never know they were fundraising for a domestic violence charity.”