The advertising clips are poorly received by viewers. The feeling: The videos have racist under tones
The new American Eagle advertising campaign with actress Sydney Sweeney as a protagonist is currently causing resentment on social media. Under the slogan “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans”, the 27-year-old advertises the company’s denim products. The claim deliberately plays with the ambiguity of the English word “jeans” and “genes” (in German: genes). But this pun’s player has met with violent criticism.
Recommendations of the editorial team
In a spot, SWEENEY can be seen in jeans dressed in how she goes to a billboard that shows the lettering “Genes”. She strokes this and replaces it with “jeans”. In another clip it lies on her back, lasciviously pulls the pants, while a voiceover talks about genetic features such as hair color and eye color. Finally, Sweeney says: “My jeans are blue.”
One of the advertising clips with the controversial slogan:
In social networks such as Tikok and X (formerly Twitter), users of the campaign accuse the combination of language, visual language and the prominent representation of SWEENEYS blonde hair and blue eyes to serve racist narratives. Some comments even speak of a recourse to Eugenic ideals.
There is criticism on social networks:
“Blonde hair and blue eyes again as ideal? We know from history where it leads,” says one of the numerous critical contributions. Others complain that the campaign had arisen without prospects of marginalized groups and “reproduces racist codes without reflection”.
American Eagle has not yet commented
American Eagle has not yet responded to the allegations. So far there is no public statement from Sweeney itself. In addition to the controversy about racist connotations, the connection of the campaign is also criticized for a charitable purpose: The line “The Sydney Jean”, whose income to the Crisis text Line is to go for mental health, is referred to by some users: inside as “tone deaf”, that is, inappropriate and insensitive to domestic violence.
Another controversy for SWEENEY
As early as May 2025, Sweeney came under criticism for a PR campaign. At that time she launched a product with a soap brand that allegedly contained her bathing water, many accused her of a sexualized self -expression. Despite the current debate, the campaign is economically successful. According to “CNBC”, the American Eagle share price increased by over four percent after the announcement of the collaboration with the actress. Industry observers: Inside, this attributes the high media attention and SWEENEYS status as a so-called “IT girl”.