One of actress Sydney Sweeney’s ads in American Eagle’s (A.E.’s) campaign this week has caused quite a stir among viewers.

The ad features Sweeney laying on a couch, styled in one of A.E.’s new denim jeans, as she narrates:

“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and eye color. My jeans are blue.”

“Genes,” a wordplay on “jeans,” is followed by a voice-over and text overlay that conclude the ad with, “Sydney has great jeans.”

The commercial instantly went viral, and alongside the praise came widespread backlash.

American Eagle was accused of promoting white supremacy and white nationalism, alongside Nazi ideals. A conventionally attractive, European white woman showcasing her great jeans or genes? The concept caused uneasiness in many.

As one X user said:

"Why would the marketing team approve this ad?...Sydney Sweeney literally talks about “genes” being passed down from parents right before saying she has great “jeans.” Is it a dog whistle to their target market in the age of Trump?"

Multitudes of other tweets shared similar sentiments.

Comparisons of A.E.‘s emphasis on Sydney’s great jeans (or genes), have been repeatedly made to 1930s Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler, embracing eugenics, planned to create a “master race” of the Germans or Aryan race, thus populating the country primarily with those who had “good genes” and eliminating those with the bad.

Sweeney’s ad, in critics’ eyes, is a dog whistle to this deadly rhetoric.

Image Credit: Jon Tyson on Unsplash

But this viewpoint is not shared by everyone. Just as there has been backlash to American Eagle and Sweeney, there has been backlash toward the backlashers.

Prominently, the White House responded to the campaign’s opposition, calling it “moronic” and “warped,” claiming this “liberal” train of thought is why “Americans voted the way they did in 2024.”

But what do the numbers say? According to Daily Mail, American Eagle’s stock skyrocketed after the campaign’s announcement and execution, despite the negative feedback.

Many right-wingers celebrated the ad and its stock success, for they viewed it as pushback against “wokeness” and “cancel culture.” Republican reporter Megyn Kelly, for example, dubbed it a return to “normal.”

Other concerns

Some viewers of Sweeney's turned their attention toward different factors.

In 1981, then-16-year-old actress Brooke Shields appeared in a Calvin Klein ad wearing the brand’s then-new jeans. The ad has been widely criticized and accused of objectifying a minor because of its evident suggestive tone.

Sweeney’s commercial has been speculated to be a callback to Shields’ Calvin Klein ad. Out of the wide array of fashion campaigns produced since then, did American Eagle choose that one for creative inspiration?

The possibility has caused some consumers to raise an eyebrow.

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The curious future

Many have theorized about what direction A.E. will take with future ads.

Will they switch gears and attempt a more inclusive, diverse approach to future campaigns after hearing the pushback? Or will they produce more ads similar to Sweeney’s?

Only time can tell.