The latest American Eagle ad campaign featuring popular Hollywood actress Sydney Sweeney, has sparked outrage from the left and applause from many on the right, who see it as a return to normalcy and rejection of wokeness.
The campaign displays a large-scale photograph of Sweeney in an all-denim outfit with the text: “Sydney Sweeney has great genes“. In the ad, the word “genes” is crossed out, with “jeans” added beside it.
The play on words for Hollywood’s “it girl” of the moment drew criticism from some on the left who are assigning racial bias to the ad’s use of “genes“, implying that her race, not her objective beauty, is the message behind the ad. Buzzfeed writer Natasha Jokic is among those who’ve described the campaign as a “dog whistle” and pointed to the “rise in prominent eugenicist thinking in recent years.”
The viral ad sparked commentary among several pundits and commentators with even the vice president weighing in on the ad and the Democrats’ response to it. (RELATED: Viral App for Women Hacked Exposing Thousands of Unsuspecting Men)
Vice President J.D. Vance’s response to the ad embodies what many on the right are thinking. The strategy of denying what is obvious for the sake of “ideology” and “party” is a losing strategy that is not resonating with many of the American people. The embrace of wokeness was a major issue for voters in the 2024 election, who saw the Trump Administration as a defensive line for the further encroachment of woke ideology into every area of modern life.
After years of seeing other brands like Victoria’s Secret and Anthropologie feature men and transgender models in their advertisements for women’s clothing, many conservatives are praising the ad’s departure from the woke norms. However, some conservatives, such as Christian commentator Allie Beth Stuckey, responded to the ad questioning whether conservatives should praise an ad just because it rejects the woke agenda. Stuckey acknowledges that the ad embraces “90’s Americana” but conservatives who are Christians first, should not be celebrating the sexualization of Sweeney.
Meanwhile, singer and songwriter Lizzo—who joined former Vice President Kamala Harris on the campaign trail—posted a parody of the ad to Instagram. Her version read: “If Democrats won the election.”
American Eagle responded in an Aug. 1 Instagram post, stating clearly that they were not going to cower to the mob over the backlash.
The response is a bold stance from a brand with enormous pressure to appease its critics or face cancellation and boycott of the brand. One thing is for certain, if you didn’t know that American Eagle is known for great jeans, you do now. (RELATED: Joy Behar Cautiously Announces “The View’s” Hiatus)