American Eagle’s ‘good jeans’ ads with Sydney Sweeney spark a debate on race and beauty standards

By ANNE D INNOCENZIO Associated Press NEW YORK AP U S fashion retailer American Eagle Outfitters longed to make a splash with its new advertising campaign starring -year-old actor Sydney Sweeney The ad blitz included clever even provocative language and was definitely going to push buttons the company s chief marketing officer notified exchange media outlets It has The question now is whether chosen of the constituents reactions the fall denim campaign produced is what American Eagle intended Titled Sydney Sweeney has great jeans the campaign sparked a debate about race Western beauty standards and the backlash to woke American politics and way of life Largest part of the negative reception focused on videos that used the word genes instead of jeans when discussing the blonde-haired blue-eyed actor known for the HBO series Euphoria and White Lotus A few critics saw the wordplay as a nod either unintentional or deliberate to eugenics a discredited theory that held humanity could be improved through selective breeding for certain traits Marcus Collins an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan s Ross School of Business declared the criticism could have been avoided if the ads evidenced models of various races making the genes pun You can either say this was ignorance or this was laziness or say that this is intentional Collins noted Either one of the three aren t good Other commenters accused detractors of reading too much into the campaign s message I love how the leftist meltdown over the Sydney Sweeney ad has only resulted in a beautiful white blonde girl with blue eyes getting x the exposure for her good genes former Fox News host Megyn Kelly wrote Tuesday on X American Eagle didn t respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press A snapshot of American Eagle The ad blitz comes as the teen retailer like numerous merchants wrestles with sluggish consumer spending and higher costs from tariffs American Eagle broadcasted that total sales were down for its February-April quarter compared to a year earlier A day after Sweeney was publicized as the company s latest celebrity collaborator American Eagle s stock closed more than up Shares were volatile this week and trading nearly down Wednesday Like various trendy clothing brands American Eagle has to differentiate itself from other mid-priced chains with a famous face or by saying something edgy according to Alan Adamson co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce Adamson disclosed the Sweeney campaign shares a lineage with Calvin Klein jeans ads from that featured a -year-old Brooke Shields saying You want to know what comes in between me and my Calvins Nothing Various TV networks declined to air the spots because of its suggestive double entendre and Shields age It s the same playbook a very hot model saying provocative things shot in an fascinating way Adamson disclosed Related Articles Ranchers say expanding herds to take advantage of record retail beef prices isn t so simple Virginia Giuffre s family expresses shock over Trump saying Epstein stole her Arkansas mentor charged with killing couple who were hiking in Devil s Den with their kids Fireflies are lighting up summer skies But the glowing bugs are still on the decline A key US inflation gauge rose last month as Trump s tariffs lifted goods prices Billboards Instagram and Snapchat Chief Marketing Officer Craig Brommers advised industry news website Retail Brew last week that Sydney is the biggest get in the history of American Eagle and the company would promote the partnership in a way that matched The campaign features videos of Sweeney wearing slouchy jeans in various settings She will appear on -D billboards in Times Square and elsewhere speaking to users on Snapchat and Instagram and in an AI-enabled try-on feature American Eagle also plans to launch a limited edition Sydney jean to raise awareness of domestic violence with sales proceeds going to a nonprofit problem counseling arrangement In a news release the company noted Sweeney s girl next door charm and main character force paired with her ability to not take herself too seriously is the hallmark of this bold playful campaign Jeans genes and their a large number of meanings In one video Sweeney walks toward an American Eagle billboard of her and the tagline Sydney Sweeney has great genes She crosses out genes and replaces it with jeans But what critics discovered the the bulk troubling was a teaser video in which 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 The video appeared on American Eagle s Facebook page and other social media channels but is not part of the campaign While remarking that someone has good genes is sometimes used as a compliment the phrase also has sinister connotations Eugenics gained popularity in early th century America and Nazi Germany embraced it to carry out Adolf Hitler s plan for an Aryan master race Civil rights activists have noted signs of eugenics regaining a foothold through the far right s promotion of the great replacement theory a racist ideology that alleges a conspiracy to diminish the influence of white people Shalini Shankar a cultural and linguistic anthropologist at Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois noted she had problems with American Eagle s genes versus jeans because it exacerbates a limited concept of beauty American Eagle I guess wants to rebrand itself for a particular kind of white privileged American Shankar revealed And that is the kind of aspirational image they want to circulate for people who want to wear their denim A cultural shift in advertising Various critics compared the American Eagle ad to a misstep by Pepsi in when it issued a TV ad that presented model Kendall Jenner offer a can of soda to a police officer while ostensibly stepping away from a photo shoot to join a crowd of protesters Viewers mocked the spot for appearing to trivialize protests of police killings of Black people Pepsi apologized and pulled the ad The demonstrations that followed the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis pushed a multitude of U S companies to make their advertising better reflect consumers of all races Various marketers say they ve observed another shift since President Donald Trump returned to office and moved to abolish all federal DEI programs and policies Jazmin Burrell founder of brand consulting agency Lizzie Della Creative Strategies reported she s noticed while shopping with her cousin more ads and signs that prominently feature white models I can see us going back to a world where diversity is not really the standard expectation in advertising Burrell disclosed American Eagle s past and future American Eagle has been praised for diverse marketing in the past including creating a denim hijab in and offering its Aerie lingerie brand in a wide range of sizes A year ago the company circulated a limited edition denim collection with tennis star Coco Gauff The retailer has an ongoing diversity equity and inclusion initiative that is primarily geared toward employees Two days before announcing the Sweeney campaign American Eagle named the latest recipients of its scholarship award for employees who are driving anti-racism equality and social justice initiatives Marketing experts offer mixed opinions on whether the attention surrounding good jeans will be good for business They were apparently thinking that this is going to be their moment Myles Worthington the founder and CEO of marketing and creative agency WORTHI But this is doing the opposite and deeply distorting their brand Melissa Murphy a marketing professor at Carnegie Mellon University s Tepper School of Business disclosed she liked certain parts of the campaign but hoped it would be expanded to showcase people besides Sweeney for the sake of the brand Other experts say the buzz is good even if it s not uniformly positive If you try to follow all the rules you ll make lots of people happy but you ll fail Adamson reported The rocket won t take off