New York, August 1 EST: The latest campaign from American Eagle, featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, has ignited a fierce debate over race, beauty standards, and marketing ethics all thanks to a pun.
Unveiled on July 23, the campaign titled “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” plays on the homophones “jeans” and “genes.” The spot opens with Sweeney narrating a basic biology lesson “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring…” before pivoting to the punchline: “My jeans are blue.” A narrator follows up: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”
But what American Eagle likely envisioned as cheeky wordplay has instead turned into a cultural flashpoint, roping in everyone from Ivy League professors to JD Vance and Doja Cat, with criticism and support splitting across political and generational lines.
Critics Say It Tiptoes Into Eugenics Territory
The ad’s critics argue that it unintentionally echoes harmful ideas tied to eugenics and racialized beauty standards. According to AP News, faculty at Columbia University and fashion culture analysts flagged how the spot’s framing a blonde, blue-eyed woman talking about “great genes” invokes a long history of associating whiteness with idealized beauty and superiority.
“Even if it wasn’t intentional, there’s a deeply problematic undertone here,” said one cultural studies professor cited by The Guardian. “It centers physical traits that have historically been held up as aspirational often to the exclusion of everyone else.”
The debate gathered momentum across social media on July 29 and 30, with users dissecting the visual and linguistic choices in the video, and questioning why American Eagle would tie its denim branding to a theme so fraught with cultural baggage.
Conservatives Clap Back
While some decried the campaign as racially coded, right-leaning commentators saw the backlash as overwrought.
Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly labeled the controversy a “manufactured outrage,” while Senator JD Vance tweeted that the furor proves “Democrats can’t help but freak out over common sense marketing.” According to Entertainment Weekly, Vance used the moment to argue that cultural elites are out of touch with everyday consumers.
Even Tesla jumped into the fray. As reported by Fox Business, the company posted a tongue-in-cheek Instagram story: “Our seat robot also has great jeans,” accompanied by a photo of one of its factory robots clad in denim.
American Eagle Responds Without Backing Down
On August 1, American Eagle responded via Instagram. “The message behind ‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story,” the post read.
The retailer stressed the campaign’s intent was to highlight confidence and personal style not biology. “We stand by the creative,” a company spokesperson told People.com, adding that the brand supports Sweeney and the original concept.
Sweeney herself seemed unfazed. In a statement to People, she said, “These are literally the comfiest jeans I’ve ever worn. I had a blast working on this.”
Viral Moments and Meme-Stock Mania
Despite the backlash or perhaps because of it the campaign has become a viral juggernaut.
A TikTok parody by Doja Cat, in which she lip-syncs the ad while flipping through a high school biology textbook in jeans, racked up over 20 million views. And as Retail Brew noted, the video gave the campaign cultural sticking power far beyond its original reach.
Meanwhile, retail investors saw an opportunity. American Eagle’s stock surged roughly 10 to 11%, adding over $200 million in market value in the first few days of the campaign, according to Business Insider. Meme traders on platforms like Reddit framed the controversy as a reason to pump the stock, seeing outrage as a marketing multiplier.
But the gains weren’t sustained. As criticism mounted, the stock dipped, exposing the volatility of brand-driven meme trading a phenomenon Northeastern University researchers say is increasingly common in today’s market.
A Symptom of Broader Tensions
The Sweeney campaign has quickly become a case study in modern branding: where boldness can become a liability, and every word is a cultural Rorschach test. Fashion commentators told The Guardian that this episode reveals a renewed appetite among brands to flirt with edgier messaging but also underscores how swiftly campaigns can backfire in the age of hyper-fast discourse.
“The line between clever and controversial has never been thinner,” said one advertising executive. “If you’re going to go there, you better be ready to stand your ground.”
For now, American Eagle is doing just that. The campaign remains live. The tagline hasn’t changed. The brand hasn’t flinched. And as long as people are talking and stocks are swinging it’s hard to say if the backlash was a misstep, or a masterstroke.
New Jersey Times Is Your Source: The Latest In Politics, Entertainment, Business, Breaking News, And Other News. Please Follow Us On Facebook, Instagram, And Twitter To Receive Instantaneous Updates. Also Do Checkout Our Telegram Channel @Njtdotcom For Latest Updates.
Korean-American minimalist living in Hoboken, Ren blends aesthetic writing with deep dives into wellness, home design, urban routines, and the pursuit of the good life. Think Monocle meets MindBodyGreen.
A Wall Street veteran turned investigative journalist, Marcus brings over two decades of financial insight into boardrooms, IPOs, corporate chess games, and economic undercurrents. Known for asking uncomfortable questions in comfortable suits.
- Marcus Reed
A bi-coastal pop culture critic and former indie screenwriter, Gia covers Hollywood, streaming wars, and subculture shifts with razor wit and Gen Z intuition. If it’s going viral, she already knew about it.
