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US jeans brand American Eagle is facing accusations its new advert campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney is ‘tone deaf’ and promotes eugenics theory.
The advertising campaign, which launched this week, features the blonde-haired and blue-eyed actor dressed in denim and it bears the tagline: ‘Sydney Sweeney has great jeans’.
The company saw a 10 per cent surge in sales after the advertisement’s release. However, the campaign has faced mixed reviews online, with some social media users saying it alludes to theories of racial superiority, according to a report by ABC News.
Here’s why.
The advertising campaign features several videos in which the company uses ‘genes’ and ‘jeans’ in a play on words.
Several videos show Sweeney, dressed head to toe in denim, discussing how great her genes/jeans are while playing with a puppy or starting up a Ford Mustang.
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour,” she says in another video which has since been removed.
“My jeans are blue.”
But some critics online say the adverts allude to eugenics, a theory popular among white supremacists, that suggests the human race could be improved by breeding out ‘less desirable traits’.
“After watching the full thing, I was a bit confused because I thought, ‘OK it’s not about selling jeans, it was about Sydney Sweeney,’ and I took a step back and analysed the symbols and language used,” TikTok creator and activist Jeff Kissubi said.
“She’s obviously conventionally attractive but it was what they considered great genes. Pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes.
“When eugenic theory started in America, it was saying that everything that was not centred around whiteness would make your gene pool bad.
“And it was the word play of the advertisement that subtly mirrored far-right Americana themes.”
Kissubi said, given the current political climate in the US, the reaction online was ‘valid’.
“In a country where identity and belonging are already being weaponised, especially now with the far-right MAGA narrative that is on the rise, I don’t think it was this overreaction,” he said.
Lauren Rosewarne, from the University of Melbourne, said the American Eagle videos reminded her of a 1980s ad campaign for Calvin Klein jeans. The advertisement featured 15-year-old actor Brooke Shields and the tagline: “Nothing gets between me and my Calvins.” It was criticised at the time for its suggestive nature.
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