On July 23, 2025, American Eagle launched an ad starring the infamous Sydney Sweeney, known for her looks and role in the hit show Euphoria. In the American Eagle ad, the aim was to advertise jeans for their new campaign. However, this ad seemed to hit the wrong audience and didn’t come across in an amiable way. The title of the ad angered many people of color based on the slogan, “Sydney Sweeny Has Great Jeans.” This came across to viewers as offensive and racist on many levels from the wide audience of specifically diverse groups.
The ad itself presents Sydney Sweeney, your average pretty, straight, blonde hair, blue eyed girl. In the ad that was publicized, Sydney Sweeney’s delivery of lines comes off negatively throughout the ad. There was a common misconception by viewers of the ad between whether American Eagle was talking about “jeans” or “genes”. Throughout the ad, there is the perceived message on eugenics. The message was overall described by the public as a “dog whistle” towards eugenics, or the selective breeding of populations for certain traits. This is known as a discredited practice towards the promotion of “improving the human race” by focusing on a typical hot white girl and abusing the wordplay of the use of the word “jeans” that sounds the same as “genes.”
This entire misconception of the ad received negative backlash and debates from many minorities on social media, causing a disarray of agitation online. There were hundreds of comments from many different groups. People of color in particular said that the ad was “racist” and “harmful”. While other groups defended the ad saying it was a “clever use of wordplay” or that the other people getting upset was an “overreaction”. Recent reports have indicated that American Eagles sales have decreased by 3% in the past 3 months ending in early August.
This ad has created a widespread opinion from different minorities on Sydney Sweeney and the company American Eagle itself. While some defend the commercial, the majority of the viewers of the ad responded negatively to the ads overall message.
