Current Events > Is the Sydney Sweeney ad problematic?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Not sure what's going on in that other topic. Just want to see the consensus.

I'm not sure what the controversy is. She said she has good jeans (which she does, she's hot) but she never put herself over anyone else.

Look up who wrote the original Yahoo article that started this controversy. That should clue you in.

I think I'm at "I refuse to watch it and become even slightly informed in this manufactured discourse "

I think it's just another distraction of bullshit that people get focused on instead of the the real issues, like the dictator currently in charge of this country. And of course it's working.

PeteyParker posted...

I think it's just another distraction of bullshit that people get focused on instead of the the real issues, like the dictator currently in charge of this country. And of course it's working.

Nailed it on the head

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/white-house-outrage-sydney-sweeney-american-eagle-jeans-1236474992/

If it wasn't a dog whistle, the dogs are still reacting.

denim? i hardly knew 'im!!

It's a huge distraction regardless of whether you vote yes or no here.

It's only problematic in the sense that the media took a pretty standard "sex sells" type ad and turned it into a rallying cry for Nazis who otherwise probably wouldn't have thought twice about it in that way.

But I'm sure the bump in AE stocks is partially due to Nazis buying up jeans for lulz.

When i saw the commercial, my only thought was Oh, its a pun.

I really really really really dont think American Eagle was out to take a pro-white supremacy statement. It was about putting a hot girl with big boobs in a pair of their jeans, hoping that people would buy them.

It isn't problematic but it's stupid

The "my eyes are blue" part was a little sus

I don't know for certain, but a company that makes its money marketing to primarily white adolescents having insensitive advertising is probably by design. Not explicitly aiming to be racist, but knowing it will be deemed that bringing them publicity for no effort basically.

The people screaming about it being problematic are people who desperately need to put down their phones and go touch grass.

Yes. Note that "problematic" isn't "disastrous". But it clearly caused some commotion, that can't be debated.

jackgunney posted...

I'm not sure what the controversy is. She said she has good jeans (which she does, she's hot) but she never put herself over anyone else.

"Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue."

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-told-crowd-of-white-supporters-they-have-good-genes-2020-9
"You have good genes. You know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn't it, don't you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we're so different? You have good genes in Minnesota," Trump said to his supporters in a state where many people are of Scandinavian descent.

It's incredibly successful, because it is being talked about outside of circles concerned with marketing, clothing brands, and Sidney Sweeney's boobs.

As was intended.

Whether that makes it 'problematic', I'm not sure. Ad agencies often like to slyly venture into the world of controversy, provocation, and poor taste to generate publicity.

I'd rank it up there with popcorn teeth

nah

I am so tired of hearing about this person

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Sourceless social media screenshot are real about as often as leprechaun footage

Antifar posted...

Sourceless social media screenshot are real about as often as leprechaun footage

Even if it's not made up it's not good enough bait to waste your energy on. It's a pun about hot genes ffs

The_Popo posted...

When i saw the commercial, my only thought was Oh, its a pun.

I really really really really dont think American Eagle was out to take a pro-white supremacy statement. It was about putting a hot girl with big boobs in a pair of their jeans, hoping that people would buy them.

Yeah this. It's a little problematic in this sense (that it's a sexualisation joke). The big secondary blow up over white supremacy concerns feels like a massive overreaction that does far more social harm than good. I doubt the racists would have cared at all about it if nobody had Streisand Effected the whole thing by trying to moralise about racist dogwhistling that probably didn't exist.

In the commercial, Sweeney says, Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.

Okay. Up until I read this I thought people were reading too much in to the great jeans/great genes thing but now I'm convinced American Eagle knew exactly what they were doing. The controversy was the point and the far-right was their intended audience. They're absolutely revelling in the fact that they have enough plausible deniability to avoid a boycott while also becoming the neo-Nazi brand of choice.

Also Megyn Kelly telling on herself by starting with:

Shes advertising jeans, and yet the lunatics on the Left think shes advertising white supremacy.

Which, y'know, fair enough. Maybe people are getting upset over-

Theyre upset because its about who gets to be the face of Americas Best Genes. They think its no accident that theyve chosen a white, thin woman because youre, I guess, not allowed to celebrate those things in any way, shape, or form.

Nevermind.

Idk why people think the obvious dog whistle isn't obvious or a dog whistle.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


https://web.archive.org/web/20250730041334/https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aschapiro_aejeans-activity-7353934171766984704-G372

It was a real LinkedIn post from their marketing team. After the backlash, they first tried letting the LinkedIn post stand, disabling the comments, and replacing some of the campaign images with a woman of color. But now I think they removed the post entirely. And they've reversed course publicly, pretending that they never intended "the double meaning behind the campaign [that] has a culture shaping power" and that it was only a genes/jeans pun.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Sometimes the leprechaun is real! But it's extremely good practice to ask for a source.

No.

Its absolutely wild to me that were at the point now where an advertisement features a beautiful woman, and instead of celebrating it, people are unironically complaining about it and saying that its NaZi PrOpOgAnDa.

I often talk about how politics rots peoples brains and this is a shining example of that. Pull your heads out of your asses, people.

Lotsa good memes have come of it though lol.

rexcrk posted...

Its absolutely wild to me that were at the point now where an advertisement features a beautiful woman, and instead of celebrating it, people are unironically complaining about it and saying that its NaZi PrOpOgAnDa.

I often talk about how politics rots peoples brains and this is a shining example of that. Pull your heads out of your asses, people.

Lotsa good memes have come of it though lol.

Advertisements feature beautiful women constantly. The vast majority of them don't have anyone referring to them as Nazi propaganda.