Sydney Sweeney in her new ad campaign for American Eagle

Sydney Sweeney’s new collaboration with the fashion brand American Eagle has become the centre of a whole lot of debate.

The Euphoria star unveiled a new campaign with the American clothing brand last week, to promote their line of denim last week.

However, it didn’t take long before social media clips to promote the deal sparked a wave of discomfort among many critics, largely due to some of the language that’s used in the campaign.

This is the story so far…

What is Sydney Sweeney’s new ad campaign for American Eagle all about?

For American Eagle’s autumn 2025 campaign, Sydney Sweeney can be seen sporting items from the brand’s denim range, including a new pair of jeans inspired by her.

The campaign also makes use of the slogan “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans”, a pun on the term “great genes”.

In another, she explains: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour.”

“My jeans are blue,” she then quips, at which point a narrator delivers the line: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”

Why are some people upset about Sydney Sweeney’s new ads for American Eagle?

Unfortunately this repeated use of the slogan “great jeans”, a pun on “great genes”, has put some viewers in mind of the language used by white supremacists and eugenicists.

By centring a blonde, white star in a campaign referencing “genes”, some critics are accusing the brand of tone-deafness at best – particularly in the current political climate – and deliberately pushing a white supremacist agenda at worst.

So a company named American eagle doing an ad campaign with a blonde hair blue eye woman saying she “has good genes” isn’t weird to anyone else

A brand called American Eagle, using a blue eyed blonde white woman to promote jeans while talking about genes, specifically her “good genes” is so incredibly on the nose like this is a clear sign of the times… https://t.co/DLJweedWec

Why would the marketing team approve this ad?

Sure, you could argue that American Eagle @AEO was just copying the old Calvin Klein ads with Brooke Shields and didn’t mean to reference eugenics, but you’d be wrong.

Sydney Sweeney literally........

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