Blonde-haired, blue-eyed mega actress Sydney Sweeney stepped in it. Her jeans ad for American Eagle has sparked a media meltdown, drawing thunderous criticism, with the coverage not limited to just CNN and Fox News. She set off what seems like half of the world against what is being called a “eugenics dog whistle” and “Nazi propaganda.”
Please. It’s an ad for blue jeans!
The controversy even reached the top of the political world. Donald Trump weighed in with an opinion about the Euphoria and White Lotus star, who most recently sold a soap for men infused with her own bathwater. He loves her now that reporters told him she’s part of the GOP.
“She’s a registered Republican?” asked Trump. “Oh, now I love her ad.” And he posted that it was the “HOTTEST ad out there.”
American Eagle stock rose 23% on Monday, and that can’t be all traced to the president’s sudden enthusiasm.
The offending line in the ad triggered minorities who believe it glorifies a racial ideal that white women are superior, and set the media abuzz. People began to accuse the company and Sweeney of promoting white supremacy. Some went so far as to say the video, which has racked up hundreds of thousands of views, promoted eugenics, a discredited white supremacist theory that the world would be better if humans got rid of less desirable traits.
As the camera moves across her body as she squirms while buttoning up her jeans. She narrates, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue.”
That’s all it took. It’s clearly just a play on words designed to sell jeans. The company defended itself by saying, “It is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.” But it admitted that it contained “clever, even provocative language” and was “definitely going to push buttons.”
The jeans display a butterfly on the back pocket, which the company says represents domestic violence awareness. All of the proceeds will be donated to Crisis Text Line, a charity that offers mental health services. It’s hard to make this point with a social media “race” meltdown on full blast.
On CNN, Ernie Suggs, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter who writes about race and culture, said, “The fact that this happened is troubling. But it also sends a message to brown and black women, sends a message to queer people, sends a message to people who have different body types that our genes are not the same, you know, our genes are not perfect, or jeans are not good.”
And singer Lizzo, posted an AI-generated picture of herself in the ad saying, “My jeans are black.”
The controversy was heavily covered by Fox News. On Jesse Watters Primetime, anchor Julie Banderas commented that the company advertises size 24 jeans, “So what is wrong with advertising for a blonde, blue-eyed person?” She said it’s a double standard and makes no sense. “It’s so stupid.”
The HBO Real Time host, Bill Maher, defended Sydney Sweeney.
“According to the woke people, this means she’s a white supremacist,” he said.
The MAGA crowd weigh-in wasn’t just limited to President Trump, it captured the upper echelon of politics. Vice President JD Vance blamed Democrats for overblowing the meaning behind the ad. “So you have a pretty girl doing a jeans ad and they can’t help but freak out. It reveals a lot more about them than it does us. No question,” Vance said on the Ruthless podcast.”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said it’s “cancel culture run amok.” And Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said, “the crazy Left has come out against beautiful women.”
Set “genes” aside. Is it hypersexualized? Yes. TikTok users — including my 17-year-old daughter and her friends — say Sweeney, who has two Emmy Award nominations, degrades women by showing off her buxom body and is just plain gross. Plus, they say the company knew jeans were not the primary message.
These are girls who loved the 27-year-old in the blockbuster hit rom-com Anyone But You. The jeans line was supposed to showcase flattering designs. But my tiny focus group agrees that they didn’t even notice the jeans because the message was designed to promote something else.
Listen, as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman, I’ve had my share of being viewed sexually in the workplace, and I know what that’s like. The difference is, unlike Sydney Sweeney, I wasn’t trying to draw attention to my body. She’s brought this charge of oozing sexuality for the cameras on herself, and many of the attacks are understandable.
So why did it unleash a political firestorm, the likes of which we haven’t seen in the advertising world for years? It mimics the extreme polarization of left versus right that has overtaken the country, which some say intensified when Trump first became president.
On CNN, fashion historian Emma McClendon says, “In the current political climate, and then with the invocation of genetics, it feels like it’s just playing on this broader, larger cultural-social grappling we’re having right now with what it means to be American.”
An MSNBC producer wrote, “Our entire culture has moved further right, allowing for this sort of behavior.”
The clear winner is American Eagle. The CEO of Crocs, Inc. — the parent of shoe company HeyDude — said the brand clearly reached its Gen Z audience. It’s been “performing really well.” Sweeney responded last week with a cryptic Instagram post of a photo of a bouquet of pink roses with a white heart sticker.
A close second are the media, whose incessant coverage caused their traffic to soar, all the while showing sexy pictures of Sweeney. It’s the story that nobody can resist.
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