Sydney Sweeney drama: JD Vance addresses American Eagle ad controversy
The Nazi party used the pseudoscience of eugenics, which promotes some genetic features as better than others, to justify the killing of Jews and countless other minority groups during the Holocaust.
Sydney Sweeney dishes on the best jeans, her favorite rom-com and what's on her playlist
American Eagle's campaign, which has spawned a fierce cultural debate, used wordplay to describe Sweeney, 27, as having "good genes," a wordplay to promote the brand's denim jeans. Critics have said the ad blitz amounts to a glorification of whiteness and a dog whistle for racist ideologies. But her supporters have said the ad is meant to be a light-hearted wordplay, defending the "Euphoria" actress and the brand.
Sweeney previously told USA TODAY that denim was a staple of her wardrobe, but left out AE in her list of favored brands at the time.
"I'm very much a white, plain T-shirt kind of girl. I jump around from a bunch of different brands and that kind of depends on what vibe I want to go for," she said. "I have my Levi's white T-shirts and my Cotton On white T-shirts that are just paired with casual jeans. Jean wise: I mean, I love Levi's, Frame, Agolde."
Sydney Sweeney controversy, explained
In one of several videos for AE, Sweeney, clad in a denim-on-denim outfit, says: "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color."
"My jeans are blue," she says as the camera pans across her blue denim and her blue eyes. Soon after the campaign dropped, people began to sound the alarm on what they saw as a dangerous message about the beauty ideal, race and "good" versus "bad" genes.
Vance, though, chalked the whole ordeal up to an overreaction from the "left" and a doubling down on a strategy that he thinks lost the Democrats the 2024 presidential election.
Dunkin' ad about 'genetics' draws comparisons to Sydney Sweeney drama
"I actually thought that one of the lessons (Democrats) might take is 'we're going to be less crazy.' And the lesson they have apparently taken is 'we're going to attack people as Nazis for thinking Sydney Sweeney is beautiful,'" he said on the podcast. "Great strategy, guys. That's how you're going to win the midterm, especially young American men."
The ad's critics, however, argued that a campaign selling jeans to women should not have been shot so clearly from the male gaze. Some consumers were quick to point out what they saw as the regressive nature of the material: A buxom blonde woman drawing attention to her body and employing a sensual tone, they argued, calling back to a stereotypical symbol of a bygone era.
"Wasn't she the one who said she didn't want to be seen as an object?" one commenter asked on Sweeney's Instagram page, while another chided: "We can leave Nazi Germany back where it got conquered ty next!!!"
Sweeney has not yet spoken out about the controversy, though several prominent members of the GOP have chimed in on her behalf. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, for instance, took to X on July 29 to blast the left for criticizing the ad.
"Wow. Now the crazy Left has come out against beautiful women. I'm sure that will poll well...." he wrote.
White House's communications director Steven Cheung, a longtime adviser for President Donald Trump, also maligned the criticism, calling it "cancel culture run amok."
"This warped, moronic and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024," he wrote on X July 29, adding that people are "tired" of this way of thinking.
But, when a second ad campaign, this time from Dunkin', dropped featuring the same "genetic" themes, many critics felt vindicated, arguing that it signaled a greater cultural shift toward genetic hierarchy and racism.
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Scotsman
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- Scotsman
Readers' Letters: Time for Jews to intervene in Gaza
Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped by parachutes into Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) A reader congratulates one of our columnists for is Gaza views. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Your columnist Joe Goldblatt is to be commended to utter the unequivocal truth that it is time for Jews to intervene to end the unfathomable grief, wholesale destruction and human agony in Gaza. 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Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad To even think this was a 'goer' should surely prove this lot are utterly deluded fools. They complain they do not have sufficient 'levers' to carry out policies, may we thank the Lord indeed if this is the case – blatantly obvious to anyone, this is not the case in the most devolved nation in the western world. While disagreeing with Kate Forbes on the Indie issue, I wish her well, one of the few with a moral backbone, though I suspect her leaving has more to it than juggling her private life with parliament. I am sure the example above among countless others would also be a factor. In this case one could not level the sobriquet of 'rats deserting the sinking ship' to Ms Forbes. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She leaves with her dignity intact, sadly leaving the real rats still on board the doomed ship SNP. D Millar, Lauder Bird brained E Campbell's letter of 5 August quoting the death rate of birds by various methods and the likely number by the Berwick Bank wind farm, misses one crucial point, that it will be an increase on previous numbers. It is likely to be sea birds who will be the main casualties, not because cats or guns but because of machines that only work when the wind blows. Mechanical power production does not present that problem. C Lowson, Hampshire Cat protection If E Campbell's claim is correct, (letters 5 August 2025) then cats kill one quarter of all UK birds every year, which we very much doubt. 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BBC News
an hour ago
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The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Democrats have early edge over Republicans in 2026 midterm election poll
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