Vice President JD Vance mocked Democrats on Friday for being outraged over Sydney Sweeney and American Eagle’s new “Great Jeans” ad campaign, joking that the criticism — including some saying it is not-so-subtle Nazi propaganda — is a “great strategy” to win over voters, especially young men.
Vance, during an appearance on “The Ruthless Podcast,” seemed amused by the week-long blowback the “Anyone But You” starlet and the clothing company have faced from many media members and social media critics.
“My political advice to the Democrats is: continue to tell everyone who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi,” Vance joked. “That appears to be their actual strategy.”
The VP then said the reaction to the ad “actually reveals something pretty interesting about the depths” of Democrats, because they have “managed to so unhinge themselves” over something as harmless as an “all-American, beautiful girl” doing a jeans commercial.
“It’s like, ‘Guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?’” Vance continued. “Like, I actually thought that one of the lessons they might take is, ‘We’re going to be less crazy’; a lesson they have apparently taken is, ‘We’re going to attack people as Nazis for thinking Sydney Sweeney is beautiful.’ Great strategy, especially young American men.”
Vance’s comments come after some have suggested the ad promotes eugenics and white supremacy by featuring the 27-year-old blonde actress and its play on words with jeans/genes.
Just to point to a few examples, an MSNBC producer wrote that the ad showed an “unbridled cultural shift toward whiteness, conservatism and capitalist exploitation,” ESPN commentator David Dennis said he was “mortified” by the ad, and Salon.com said Sweeney and American Eagle were using “American eugenics” to sell jeans. Others on TikTok and other social platforms made similar claims.
American Eagle and Sweeney appear to have just shrugged off the criticism, and the company’s stock — which jumped more than 10% in the days after the ad was released on July 23 — is still up a few percent since the “controversy” started.
