Sydney Sweeney’s New Ad Campaign Is Accused Of Being ‘Master Race Propaganda’ And ‘Promoting Eugenics’

ByMF Jones

There’s been an incredible reaction to Sydney Sweeney’s new ad campaign with American Eagle denim, which has sent the brand’s stock price soaring by 17%, but also invited a load of criticism claiming that the advert is racist and promoting eugenics.

Here’s the argument for that: the tagline to the campaign is “Sydney Sweeney has Great Jeans.”

The advert features Sweeney, 27, speaking directly to the camera: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color … my genes are blue,” she says, while seductively buttoning up a pair of jeans.

The wordplay with “jeans” and “genes” is what people are finding problematic, particularly from a blue-eyed, blonde-haired, quintessentially American white girl.

Here’s some of the reaction online:

Some people are even likening it to Nazi propaganda:

So clearly this advert has not gone down well with a lot of people, even if it does seem to be working out from a financial perspective thus far. For American Eagle, it probably seemed like a stroke of genius from the marketing team: take America’s #1 sex symbol, put her in classic American blue jeans, have her stand next to a Ford Mustang, and boom: watch the money pile up.

There’s no way they didn’t also expect a load of backlash over the “jeans/genes” wordplay, but maybe that was part of the plan.

I suppose we’ll have to see how this pans out for American Eagle in the long run, and the result could go some way to determining how other American/western brands handle their marketing going forward. It’s essentially the complete opposite of a ‘woke’ advert. Has the pendulum already swung the other way in 2025?

For the time that Sydney Sweeney looking amazing in a micromini skirt was deemed “a threat to body positivity”, click HERE. Sigh…

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