Summary
Sydney Sweeney is featured in a new American Eagle ad campaign with the tagline "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans." The campaign has sparked online controversy, with some people accusing it of suggesting ideas related to eugenics, which is a discredited theory of improving the human race by controlling who can reproduce. American Eagle has not commented on the backlash.
Key Facts
- American Eagle's new ad stars actress Sydney Sweeney.
- The campaign uses a play on the word "jeans" to also reference "genes."
- Some viewers have accused the ad of hinting at eugenics, a debunked and controversial idea.
- Eugenics once suggested improving humans by selecting who can reproduce, and it is linked to supremacist views.
- American Eagle and Sweeney's publicist have not responded to the criticism.
- An advertising expert noted that causing a stir might have been the campaign’s intent to gain attention.
- The campaign has been compared to controversial ads from the past, like Brooke Shields' Calvin Klein ad.
