Sydney Sweeney’s recent partnership with American Eagle Outfitters has generated substantial online criticism.
The ad campaign, which focuses on the company’s new line of denim products, is centered around the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” — and people have a lot to say about the slogan’s messaging.
Chatter surrounding the collaboration has added the brand to a growing list of companies experiencing “meme stock” booms, CNBC reported, or a stock that gains popularity through social media. After the initiative debuted, shares of the company’s stock jumped more than 4%.
So, why are people talking about the ad? Here is everything you need to know.
What do the Sydney Sweeney ads for American Eagle depict?
In American Eagle’s fall campaign, Sydney Sweeney shows off the company’s latest collection of denim.
Videos from the promotion focus on the “Euphoria” and “Anyone But You” star’s denim-clad body as she lounges with a puppy, fixes a car and buttons up a pair of over-sized jeans.
“Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” the campaign’s slogan booms at the end of each clip as a play on the words “genes” and “jeans.”
The ads play up the homophone “good jeans” and “good genes.”
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My genes are blue,” Sweeney says in one ad as the camera pans her body while she buttons a pair of jeans.
Another print ad spells out, “Sydney Sweeney has great genes,” but crosses out the “genes” and writes in “jeans.”
The collection features over 200 fits of jeans and over 50 new styles. In the campaign announcement, President and Executive Creative Director at American Eagle explains Sweeney’s role in the ad.
“With Sydney Sweeney front and center, she brings the allure, and we add the flawless wardrobe for the winning combo of ease, attitude and a little mischief,” the announcement reads.
Why is the ad campaign causing controversy?
The campaign has stirred up mixed opinions on the internet, raising questions about its intent and implications.
For some, the campaign’s central messaging about genes uphold outdated and harmful standards of beauty, and even promote eugenic ideals.
Eugenics is an evolutionary theory aimed to select “desired heritable characteristics in order to improve future generations,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The movement has a long history, but in the U.S., it historically used “genetic superiority” as justification for white supremacy.
The ad’s messaging surrounding “good genes” feels like a wink to eugenic ideals.
“Them choosing ‘Sydney Sweeney has great genes’ was not an accident,” one user said in a TikTok video that received over one million views. “It’s a dog whistle towards the rise of people who are wanting to see more people who look like them everywhere.”
A representative for Sweeney declined to comment to NBC News. American Eagle did not respond to a request for comment.
Cheryl Overton, Chief Experience Officer at integrated marketing communications firm Cheryl Overton Communications, says context is important. The promotion “doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” she says. Instead, it occurs in “a country actively grappling with social standards rooted in whiteness.”
“The subtext isn’t imagined; it’s rooted in centuries-old narrative about one archetype of beauty that is seen as genetically superior or ‘aspirational,” Overton tells TODAY.com.
While the ad never references race, Hillary Herskowitz, CEO and Founder of H2 Marketing Group, tells TODAY.com there is “no denying” that the phrase “carries historical baggage.”
“When you pair that kind of wordplay with a blond, blue-eyed actress, it can unintentionally reinforce narrow, Eurocentric beauty standards,” she adds.
Whether this implication is purposeful is up for debate.
Overton says the messaging could be the result of a “blind spot of a team lacking cultural fluency” or a “brand looking actively to cull consumers who value diversity from its base.”
Herskowitz sees the ad as being designed to provoke a reaction.
“Intentional,” Herskowitz says. “That line — ‘good jeans’ — is too perfectly constructed not to be. It was designed to be cheeky, playful and buzzworthy. The creative team knew exactly what they were doing.”
Adrienne Alexander, owner of the PR firm IPY Agency, points out the extensive process campaigns like this go through, and says multiple teams likely signed off on the language.
“Campaigns like this go through many hands, including creative, legal, PR, and brand strategy, so it’s unlikely that no one flagged the potential issue. More likely, the team underestimated the reaction or saw it as a playful pun rather than a loaded phrase. Either way, the responsibility remains the same: if you spark a conversation, be prepared to own it and respond accordingly,” she says.
The ad has also garnered criticism for sexualizing Sweeney. Some say the ad’s close-up shots of the actor seem to objectify her and cater to the male gaze.
“Are we selling jeans to women or selling women in jeans to men?” one user commented on American Eagle’s Instagram.
The limited edition Sydney Jean, produced with Sweeney, has a butterfly motif on the back pocket representing domestic violence awareness, per a press release from the company, and the entirety of the purchase price will be donated to the Crisis Text Line.
Marketing professor Melissa Murphy calls the juxtaposition of the sexual nature of the ads, plus the domestic violence tie-in, “mismatched” tonally.
Some viewers have also pointed out that the ad feels reminiscent of a controversial Calvin Klein campaign from 1980 featuring a teenage Brooke Shields.
“You want to know what comes in between me and my Calvins? Nothing,” the then 15-year-old model said in the ad as the camera panned her entire body.
The moment caused an uproar for holding sexual implications and taking advantage of the young star. Shields later spoke out about the moment, saying she was unaware of the ad’s meaning.
Like the Calvin Klein ad, which Klein once said put the company on the map, American Eagle has seen increased chatter following the campaign’s debut.
According to Herskowitz, controversy can “drive brand momentum.” But was the controversy intentional?
Murphy, doubts it, and so calls the ad campaign, and its lack of diversity, a “miss.”
“They should have done (the ad) with multiple people — that would definitely resonate better,” she says. “If there isn’t more, and this is just it, then that’s not a good sign.”
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