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Sydney Sweeney ad for Eagle Jeans has made woke liberals mad, here is why

Sudarshan Vahini

‘Great jeans’ or ‘great genes’? The new American Eagle advertisement featuring Sydney Sweeney donning blue denim jeans has taken the internet by storm. While many hailed the ad campaign as a breath of fresh air and a pivot towards non-woke ad themes, the woke-liberal section is outraged and alleged that the campaign promotes ‘eugenic thinking’.

The woke liberals also claim that somehow, an ad campaign featuring a popular white actor-model with blonde hair and blue eyes reflects an ‘unbridled shift towards whiteness’.

‘Nazi propaganda, an example of white supremacy’: How a harmless pun triggered woke-liberal meltdown

The claims of US fashion retailer American Eagle promoting white racial and genetic supremacy emerged due to the “genes” pun used in the ad campaign titled: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans”. The limited edition “Sydney Jean” denim collection features a butterfly motif for domestic violence awareness.

The American Eagle ad simply plays on the homophone “jeans/genes” with videos showing Sydney Sweeney saying things like, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.”

In another video, Sweeney crosses out “genes” on a billboard and replaces it with “jeans”. American Eagle’s stock has skyrocketed since the campaign was launched on 23rd July, and so has the frustration of the woke-liberal-leftist sections in America.

American Eagle’s harmless wordplay has stoked a debate about racial biases, western standards or ideals of beauty. The woke cabal is calling the American Eagle ad a deliberate or inadvertent nod to eugenics, who believe humanity could be ‘improved’ through selective breeding for certain traits. The leftists suggest that either American Eagle should not have used the “genes” pun or should have shown models of various races other than just white Sydney Sweeney. Some went as far as to label the campaign ‘Nazi propaganda’ and an example of ‘white supremacy’.

One of the prominent voices to criticise, or rather mock, Sydney Sweeney and the American Eagle ad campaign is Doja Cat. In a TikTok video, Doja Cat mocked the viral gene puns. The controversial rapper and singer made a TikTok video mocking Sweeney’s dialogue, twisting the final word into ‘blee’.

An Indian-American girl made a video criticising the American Eagle advertisement and said, “It is so difficult to grow up as a person of colour, specifically a woman, and view yourself as beautiful in any sense of the word.”

Another American woman called the “genes” pun a “dog whistle”, saying that the ad came at a time when ‘fascism’ is rising in America, adding that the ad suggests that “white thin, traditionally feminine bodies are not just aspirational but symbols of morality, traditional purity.”

Somehow, she connected Sweeney’s “blue jeans” with her blue eyes, and argued that it echoed “white purity politics and the purity of blonde hair, blue eyes.” She claims that the American Eagle ad campaign positions white skinned, blue-eyed, blonde-haired and thin body of Sydney Sweeney as a lineage of genes as “worthy of reproduction”.

She, however, did not explain if it is acceptable when black or brown, obese, black-eyed, weirdly dressed woke models are presented as ideal or aspirational.

Another TikToker slammed the ad and said, “If you haven’t seen or comprehended how bad it is, I need you to open your f–king eyeballs and listen. This is Nazi s–t. Pure Nazi s–t.”

Meanwhile, the supporters of the campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney hailed the advertisement as a clap back at the woke culture.

Donald Trump’s White House Chief of Staff, Steven Cheung, also joined the debate and called the outrage against the Sydney Sweeney headlined ad campaign “just another example of cancel culture.” Cheung further asserted that it was due to the frustration over this cancel culture that Donald Trump won the US presidential election last year.

“Cancel culture run amok. This warped, moronic, and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024. They’re tired of this bullshit,” Cheung posted on X on 30th July 2025.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk-owned Tesla also added a fun element to the otherwise charged debate by posting a video of a robot sitting on car seats. The post read, “Our seats robot also has great jeans.”

Musk also shared the post and said, “Testing rubbing jeans on our seats.”

Besides TikTokers and Woke commentators, the liberal media outlets have also jumped on the bandwagon to bemoan the American Eagle fall season ad campaign featuring the ‘Euphoria’ actor Sydney Sweeney.

Not just people, even the Leftist mainstream media is ‘offended’ over a harmless ad

In this vein, Vulture, a New York-based entertainment magazine, published an article headlined: “No One Is Keen on Sydney Sweeney’s New Jeans Ad”. The article draws equivalence between the Brooke Shields Calvin Klein campaign from the 1980s, wherein Shields said, “Genes are fundamental in determining the characteristics of an individual.”

“During a time when DEI is under attack and there are mass deportations occurring daily, an ad campaign centered on how awesome it is to be white and blonde-haired and blue-eyed reads as rather tone-deaf,” the Vulture article reads.

Meanwhile, Vanity Fair also published a piece recently, and called the “jeans/genes” pun in the American Eagle ad ‘a sinister message’.

“Does Sydney Sweeney have ‘great jeans,’ or has the American Eagle brand simply had a very, very bad idea?” while noting that the campaign is “based around a play on words that may seem harmless − but has been criticized by onlookers who see a sinister message lurking beneath the pun,” the article reads.

MSNBC also criticised the said ad and argued that “the choice of Sweeney as the sole face in it and the internet’s reaction reflect an unbridled cultural shift toward whiteness, conservatism and capitalist exploitation.”

It further targets Sweeney, arguing that “Sweeney has been transparent that her goal as a public figure is to make as much money as possible,” as if making money as-much-as-possible is a crime. Maybe, MSNBC’s Hannah Holland saw a capitalist element in this aspiration too.

While the backlash over the Sydney Sweeney-American Eagle ad has yet to subside, Dunkin Donuts, an American food franchise, has also rolled out an ad for its summer Refresher drinks featuring “The Summer I Turned Pretty” star Gavin Casalegno. In a 35-second video, Casalegno, often called the “King of Summer” in pop culture, is seen crediting his summer tan to his “genetics”.

“Look, I didn’t ask to be the king of summer. It just kind of happened,” he said. “This tan? Genetics. I just got my colour analysis back. Guess what? Golden Summer. Literally,” Casalegno says.

Much like the American Eagle ad, this one has also been labelled as “racially tone-deaf”. Casalegno’s support for Israel, which is at war with the Palestinian Islamic terror group Hamas, has further fuelled the outrage. Many are trying to trace a ‘pattern’ as Dunkin Donuts put out an ad with ‘genetics’ used in it.

Sydney Sweeney indeed checks all the boxes of conventional Western beauty standards; however, blaming her for pulling off the campaign’s aesthetics gracefully, presenting the ‘genes’ pun in a playful manner, and trolling her for the same is like blaming sunset for being too pretty. It requires a different level of mental gymnastics to interpret a surface-level pun, as some sort of treatise on selective breeding or a nod to eugenics. Is the charity cause, the American Eagle campaign, contributing exclusively to whites?

As per American Eagle, the butterfly motif on the back pocket of the jeans in the limited “The Sydney Jean” collection represents domestic violence awareness. In support of the cause, 100% of the purchase price from ‘The Sydney Jean” will be donated to Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit offering free, 24/7, confidential mental health support to those in need.

The accusations of racism, and promotion of white supremacy, Nazi propaganda and whatnot, come across as an overzealous interpretation. Countering the woke outrage, the American right wing has praised the ad as a rejection of woke advertising, which has become increasingly mainstream in the last few years.

The very people outraged over the American Eagle and Dunkin Donuts advertisements and slandering Sweeney and Casalegno never allege promotion of racial superiority or dominance when non-white celebrities headline ad campaigns of big brands. These big brands take into account the marketability and popularity of those they want to be the face of their campaign, not necessarily as avatars of any racial ideology.

However, it seems like the anguish of the victory of the conservatives has inflicted a trauma so deep on woke liberals that even harmless puns and advertisements featuring white actors come across as far-right, white supremacist conspiracy to them.



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