American Eagle’s new fall campaign starring Sydney Sweeney is drawing criticism – not for its denim, but for its controversial tagline: “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.”
The brand displayed the slogan prominently on billboards in Times Square and Las Vegas, intending it as a playful pun on denim. But many online critics interpreted it differently, reading it as “great genes,” a phrase historically tied to whiteness, thinness, and conventional standards of beauty. Critics argue the campaign comes off as a tone-deaf move in today’s cultural climate.
One ad even leaned into the pun visually, showing Sweeney “painting” over the words “great genes” to change them to “great jeans” – a move that many saw as anything but subtle.
Backlash
“Maybe I’m too f***ing woke,” one viral post read, “but getting a blue-eyed, blonde, white woman and focusing your campaign around her having perfect genetics feels weird…”
Others went further, comparing the messaging to “master race” rhetoric and eugenics-era language that promoted white beauty as superior.
Historians and critics noted that early 20th-century eugenics campaigns in the U.S. often emphasized “good genes” to encourage reproduction among white, able-bodied people, while promoting harmful, discriminatory policies like forced sterilization. Critics say echoes of that ideology still linger in modern advertising, often without scrutiny.
American Eagle has yet to respond to the backlash. The campaign features Sweeney modeling the limited-edition “Sydney Jean” collection, which supports Crisis Text Line, a mental health helpline for victims of domestic violence. The brand also rolled out AR filters, AI try-ons, and massive 3D billboards to promote the launch.
Meme Economy
Despite the controversy, American Eagle’s stock surged by as much as 16%, driven not by company fundamentals but by meme stock momentum. Analysts credited the spike to viral buzz on platforms like Reddit and Stocktwits, similar to what previously happened with GameStop and AMC.
In the end, it’s not just about the jeans. It’s about who gets to be the face of America’s ‘best genes’.
Meanwhile, Sydney Sweeney is busy launching her lingerie brand, which explains her unexpected appearance at Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s wedding. It had left many puzzled, since she didn’t appear to have any personal connection to the couple.
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