American Eagle is standing firmly behind its Sydney Sweeney ad campaign that has caused an uproar on social media and cable news over the last few days, saying the campaign “is and always was about the jeans.”
“We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone,” the company said on Instagram on Friday.
Controversy erupted online last week after Sweeney’s ad started making the rounds. In the spot, the actress touts herself as having great jeans – a play on the actress’ genes. Other billboards for the campaign show her painting over the statement “Sydney Sweeney has great genes” with “jeans.” Some online have called the ad tone-deaf, saying it celebrates her whiteness and thinness.
Many viral comments deriding the ad brought up arguments that it could not only be subtly promoting white supremacy, but also eugenics, nazism and master race propaganda.
This outcry led to right-wing pundits and even The White House commenting on the issue. Trump’s communication manager Steven Cheung called the reaction “cancel culture run amok.”
“This warped, moronic and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024,” he wrote on X. “They’re tired of this bulls–t.”
Megyn Kelly also went after the “lunatic left” on her SiriusXM show for the online backlash the ad received. Like many on the right, she touted the reaction as “absurd.”
“They’re upset because it’s about who gets to be the face of America’s Best Genes,” she said. “They think it’s no accident that they’ve chosen a white, thin woman because you’re, I guess, not allowed to celebrate those things in any way, shape or form. But they’re completely ignoring the reference to her body, which is the thing she’s famous for. It’s just absurd.”
Watch the original ad, below.
