The actress’ new denim campaign sparked debate about its messaging and tone

Sydney Sweeney for American Eagle.Credit : 

Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle campaign initially sparked a social media firestorm days after it launched, over its perceived messaging.

The fall campaign titled “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” released by the retailer on Wednesday, July 23, the 27-year-old actress serves up her signature sex appeal while modeling various denim styles.

The campaign sees the Euphoria actress in fall-centric denim, pulled together by her stylist Molly Dickson. One look sees her in a modern Canadian tuxedo with bold blue jeans and a matching jacket, while another includes super-baggy light-wash jeans with a white tee and then a similar pair but distressed, worn with a white tank.

It’s not the clothing that’s dividing fans, though — it’s the script.

In one of the campaign videos that appears to have been removed from some of American Eagle’s social media channels (it remains on the brand’s Facebook), the star is seen zipping up her jeans while lying down.

“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color,” she says as the camera pans to her face. “My jeans are blue.”

Then, a narrator in voiceover says, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”

Sydney Sweeney stars in American Eagle’s Fall 2025 campaign.American Eagle

Some critics claim the usage of the word “jeans” as a play on “genes” hints at eugenics. Per the National Institute of Health (NIH), eugenics “is broadly defined as the use of selective breeding to improve the human race.”

Author, physician and scholar Sayantani DasGupta, who teaches a course on Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, took to TikTok to break down the controversy, in a video that now has close to 4M views. She shares that she’ll be using the ad as a teaching moment in her classroom this semester as a tool to spark discussion about race and the current political climate.

Others suggest the campaign as a whole caters to the male gaze.

“The tagline is simply bizarre,” writes Washington Post fashion critic Rachel Tashjian. “Are they trying to say that what matters is not what you look like but what you put on your body? Or that you are assigned a denim style at birth and you must never waver from it? Also: Is Sweeney the every girl or the only girl?”

The campaign is also drawing comparisons to Brooke Shields’ controversial Calvin Klein ad from 1980. The actress’ age (she was 15 at the time) sparked controversy due to the commercial’s provocative tagline: “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”

Despite the controversy, American Eagle’s stock increased 10 percent in just a few days, adding more than $200 million to the group’s value, per Vanity Fair.

Sydney Sweeney for American Eagle.American Eagle