Sydney Sweeney's ‘Good Jeans' Ad—The American Eagle Controversy, Explained
Why are culture warriors so fixated on ads?
American Eagle's newest ad campaign starring Sydney Sweeney sparked backlash online, as a video of Sweeney in a Canadian tuxedo talking about her 'good jeans' was accused of delivering a regressive message.
In one of several videos for American Eagle's ad campaign, Sweeney delivers a little talk about DNA, saying, "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color."
"My jeans are blue," Sweeney concludes, with the ad delivering the now-infamous line, 'Sydney Sweeney has 'good jeans.''
Online, progressive commentators seemed disturbed by the ad, and criticized the Euphoria star for catering to the male gaze.
Others viewed the focus on the 'good genes' of a conventionally attractive, blue-eyed blonde woman as some kind of eugenist dogwhistle.
Many criticized and pushed back against the clip, which sparked a counter-reaction from reactionary content creators, who heralded the ad as a cultural victory.
Forbes has reached out to American Eagle via email for comment.
While some viewed the American Eagle ad as reflecting something unpleasant about the current moment, it could be considered a symptom of nostalgia culture—the ad is explicitly a remake of a controversial Brooke Shields ad from the 80's, shot when she was only 15 years-old.
In the last few years, fierce controversies have often been sparked by commercials, with commentators seemingly viewing ad campaigns as the battleground for a never-ending culture war.
After a period of faux-progressive ad campaigns and reactionary backlashes (such as non-binary Mr Potato Head and the Bud Light fiasco), the pendulum has now swung the opposite way—now, it's progressives who are expressing outrage over advertisements.
The Sweeney ad sparked discourse, then memes and mockery, as commentators tried to make sense of the controversy, and gauge how much outrage the campaign had really caused.
While some expressed disappointment in Sweeney for leaning into sex appeal to sell products (such as her 'bath water' soap bars), others commended Sweeney for capitalizing on her brand, noting that she was one of the few non-Nepo Baby stars out there.
What seemed like a small outrage, largely contained on X (Twitter), eventually spread to the rest of the internet.
On TikTok, Doja Cat joined the discourse, mocking Sweeney's genes monologue with an exaggerated Southern accent.
The Late Show host Stephen Colbert discussed the controversy after playing the clip on his show, stating:
'Some people look at this and they're seeing something sinister, saying that the genes/jeans denim wordplay in an ad featuring a white, blonde woman means American Eagle could be promoting eugenics, white supremacy and Nazi propaganda. That might be a bit of an overreaction — although Hitler did briefly model for Mein Kampfort Fit Jeans.'
Weirdly enough, the White House even commented on the controversy, with spokesman Steven Cheung describing the backlash as 'Cancel culture run amok. This warped, moronic, and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024. They're tired of this bulls**t.'
It's all ads, it seems, all the way down—are we doomed to endure endless discourse about which demographic is being targeted by corporate America's newest ad campaigns?
The internet has shown that it can meme water bottles, McDonalds milkshakes and Labubu dolls into the stratosphere, turning ordinary items into must-have purchases.
Advertising is all about attention, after all, and everyone is desperately trying to make their brand go viral, by any means necessary. MORE FROM FORBES Forbes What Is The 'Gen Z Stare'? The TikTok Debate, Explained By Dani Di Placido Forbes How Labubu Dolls Took Over The Internet By Dani Di Placido Forbes The AI-Altered 'Wizard Of Oz' Controversy, Explained By Dani Di Placido Forbes The Controversial Donald Trump 'South Park' Episode, Explained By Dani Di Placido
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