American Eagle wants you to know: it’s about the jeans.
The retailer broke the silence on the controversy surrounding its “great jeans” ad campaign starring actor Sydney Sweeney.
“‘Sydney Sweeney has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans,” the company said Friday, in a statement on Instagram. “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.”
The brand received both criticism and praise for its ad campaign, which features the 27-year-old star.
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue,” Sweeney says in one spot.
The message — and Sweeney’s blonde hair, blue eyes, and light skin — sparked a debate on social media over beauty standards, with some slamming the campaign as “regressive.”
American Eagle
Some social media critics drew comparisons to the debunked theories of eugenics and the German Nazi movement.
“Eugenics propaganda does typically focus a lot on this idea of who has good genes and who has bad genes,” said one TikToker who says she is pursuing a degree in history.
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She added: “It’s one thing to talk about good jeans with a J in advertising, but it’s a whole other thing to say someone has ‘great’ genes with the G.”
The backlash saw backlash of its own as well, with conservative commentators celebrating Sweeney’s appearance and mocking “cancel culture run amok.”
Elon Musk’s Tesla even weighed in with a video of one of its quality control tests showing a denim-on-leather test at one of its facilities.
“Our seats robot also has great jeans,” the Tesla account posted on X.
“Seatney,” it added.
With all the commotion over American Eagle’s attempt at wordplay, it seems that wit — like beauty — is often in the eye of the beholder.