Why did the Sydney Sweeney ad for American Eagle become such a national sensation that has lasted multiple weeks?
What made this story unique is that it wasn’t the outrage that prolonged the story but the reaction to that outrage. It represented a win for normalcy after many years of abnormal hysteria.
Sydney Sweeney has great jeans, proclaims the American Eagle ad released toward the end of July. The ad has been called racist, sexist and more. The controversy ostensibly stems from a pun. The accusation that the play on words, that Sweeney actually has good genes, means celebrating eugenics.
In one video, 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.’
Thousands of internet commenters weighed in angrily about the ad, both because of the pun and because they didn’t approve of Sweeney’s classic American blonde hair, blue eyed beauty. Vanity Fair called the ad a ‘very, very bad idea.’ Megan Graham at the Wall Street Journal called the ad ‘male-geared’ and quoted TikTok users who used the term ‘male gaze,’ a silly film term that alleges women are often portrayed only for the consumption of a male audience.
The New York Times took issue with Sweeney doing so many ads for different brands. ‘Why does an actress who has two Emmy Award nominations and has been featured in a number of films and TV shows — including the hit rom-com ‘Anyone But You,’ which brought in over $200 million worldwide — need to lend her face to so many brands?’ they wondered while closely inspecting her bank account.
The Sweeney ad didn’t just show a beautiful girl in tight jeans. It represented a shift in culture, the left felt it and it made them angry. But the real test of that shift is what came next. Nothing.
It’s one thing for a brand to make what used to be considered a fairly safe ad featuring a pretty girl wearing the clothes in a provocative fashion. It’s another for that brand to stand by it amid backlash. American Eagle put out a short statement noting ‘it’s always been about the jeans.’ What would have been a groveling apology just a few years ago was suddenly a terse comment telling people, essentially, to get over it.
One of the top comments on their Instagram page noted ‘It’s giving ‘I’m sorry you feel that way” which is another way of saying it’s a non-apology. That’s exactly right. American Eagle isn’t sorry and they shouldn’t be. Sweeney hasn’t commented publicly about the non-controversy at all.
Sweeney has been the center of dumb internet storms before and it’s possible she learned some lessons. Three years ago, Sweeney posted photos from her mom’s 60th birthday and, in the blurry background of some of the photos, red hats in the style of the Trump campaign’s MAGA hats are visible. Her brother pointed out that the hats actually read ‘Make Sixty Great Again,’ which did little to assuage the mob.
At first, Sweeney tried to brush it off, posting on her then-Twitter account that ‘An innocent celebration for my moms milestone 60th birthday has turned into an absurd political statement, which was not the intention. Please stop making assumptions.’
But it was 2022 and the mob had total control over the narrative. A year later, in an interview with Variety, Sweeney somewhat capitulated and noted, ‘The people in the pictures weren’t even my family.’ In that same interview, Variety described her bikini photo shoot with them as channeling ‘a ’90s-throwback magazine queen.’ Somehow she wasn’t catering to the male gaze then.
In the parsing of the American Eagle story, some outlets have pointed out that Sweeney posted a Black Lives Matters post in 2020, which feels particularly Soviet. Does this person really believe? Is their zeal real? Is she for us or against us? Then the news broke that Sweeney had registered as a Republican.
A few days ago, the president gave new life to the story when he was asked about it. President Donald Trump responded, ‘You’d be surprised at how many people are Republicans. That’s what I wouldn’t have known. But I’m glad you told me that. If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic!’ The truth is, the ad is fantastic whether she’s a Republican or not.
The larger win here is for giving people what they want. American Eagle wasn’t making a political statement, it was making a marketing one. Pretty girls wear our clothing and you should too. In May, American Eagle was forced to downgrade their outlook for the year after lackluster sales. Since the controversy, their stock price is up.
If it’s true that they have good jeans, their growth will continue. They’ve done a service for the American people by standing their ground and focusing on their product.