As much as the news media serves to inform the public, we’re also here to give you something to talk about. Learning about the world around us provides the connective tissue for spirited interactions and growing deeper bonds with each other.
What are you going to bring up at the dinner table to get the conversation flowing? Did you read that article everybody has been talking about, too?
Who or what is it? This week, it’s Sydney Sweeney and her controversial ad campaign with retailer American Eagle, in which she stares into the camera with her baby blues, and whispers:
“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 has since been removed from American Eagle’s social media channels, but can still be found online.
Sydney Sweeney x American Eagle, oh my god. pic.twitter.com/tDkeGT9R7G
— Sydney Sweeney Daily (@sweeneydailyx) July 24, 2025
What’s the big deal? The company’s creative choices have prompted some to say the ad campaign promotes eugenics, a discredited scientific theory popular among white supremacists that the human race could be improved by breeding out less desirable traits. Others are saying the uproar is the culture’s response from a society hellbent on sexualizing women.
And a lot of people are taking issue with the hypersexualized nature of the ads, especially since the company says the ad campaign is supposed to raise domestic violence awareness, a cause Sweeney is passionate about — and 100% of the purchase price of the jeans will be donated to Crisis Text Line, a charity that offers mental health services.
The original video was posted last week on social media, part of a campaign that focuses on, well, – American Eagle jeans, and Sweeney’s famous figure wearing them.
In several other clips, Sweeney talks about the jeans she’s wearing or teases the viewer about the camera lingering on her chest for too long. But the video that caused this discourse is the one embedded above, in which Sweeney recites a monologue that plays on the word “genes.”
Laden with controversy
The public ad campaign that referenced genetics at this moment — when President Trump’s White House has pushed hard to slash diversity efforts in the federal government and target immigrants — was already tripping some alarm bells for viewers.
But if that wasn’t enough, the monologue within this newer ad is also a nod to an infamous Calvin Klein campaign from 1980 that starred a then-15-year-old Brooke Shields.
For Shields’ ad campaign, the source of the backlash wasn’t so much the lesson on genetics, but more the overt sexualization of a minor in an advertisement, with some labeling it child pornography.
In her 2023 documentary Pretty Baby, Shields took stock of how damaging this public perception was to her development, and noted that she was so young at the time she didn’t even understand the innuendos in the ad campaign.
What are people saying? Some people are mad. And others are mad that they’re mad. The internet is an incredibly diverse place!
Immediately after Sweeney’s campaign went live, many on social media noted that they felt the language behind the ad felt promotional of eugenics and expressed discomfort and disdain.
Damn I thought you all were joking but that Sydney Sweeney ad really does say “genes determine personality.” Our culture is absolutely cooked
— Erik Baker (@erikmbaker) July 26, 2025
Others are saying people are overreacting — that they’re too woke and the criticism is coming from triggered liberals.
Vice President Vance even chimed in on the matter during a recent podcast interview:
🚨 LMAO! JD Vance just reacted to leftists melting down over Sydney Sweeney
“My political advice to Democrats is continue to tell everyone who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a NAZl” 🤣
“You guys, did you learn NOTHING from the 2024 election?! I actually thought one of… pic.twitter.com/qp3zLxU9lG
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 1, 2025
NPR’s Mia Venkat spoke to Sarah Banet-Weiser, dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. Banet-Weiser noted that the idea that sex sells has always been a golden rule of advertising. Sweeney has become known for taking roles or partnerships where her sexiness is the center of attention and she gets a lot of flack for that..
“It’s an attention economy here that is focused on her,” Banet-Weiser said. “But it is also about the profitability of anger and profitability of hate. And we see this over and over again.”
So, what now?
The brand’s stock soared immediately in the wake of the viral fervor, but it’s still too soon to tell if the company will see any real benefit from the ad campaign.
On Friday afternoon, the retailer released a statement addressing the controversy saying the campaign, “is and always was about the jeans. [Sweeney’s] jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”
Sweeney’s representatives did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.
Sweeney’s flood of commercial gigs has remained steady with her growing profile. She’s starred in ad campaigns for brands like Hey Dude, Laneige, Baskin-Robbins and Samsung.
They’re no bathwater soap ads, but it’s honest work.
Transcript:
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Some weeks, there’s a main character – someone or something the internet becomes obsessed with. NPR’s Mia Venkat keeps tabs on those trends and is here to break them all down for us. Hey.
MIA VENKAT, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: So Mia, tell me, who’s this week’s main character?
VENKAT: This week, it’s the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad campaign.
SUMMERS: I’ve heard a few things about this.
VENKAT: That’s right. So for listeners who haven’t, Sweeney’s an actress. You might know her from her roles in “Euphoria,” “White Lotus,” “Anyone But You.” And last week, American Eagle launched a big new jeans campaign, and she’s the face of it. It’s clearly meant to be a sexy ad. In one video, she’s lounging, buttoning up her jeans. In another, they zoom in on her chest. And she uses a sultry voice.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SYDNEY SWEENEY: I’m not here to tell you to buy American Eagle jeans or that they make your butt look amazing.
SUMMERS: OK, I have questions, but I would like to know why so many people on the internet seem to be mad about this. I understand that part of it’s about the language.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SWEENEY: Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICEOVER ARTIST: Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.
VENKAT: Obviously, the play is on the word genes here, and people are saying that it promotes eugenics. Sweeney is a blonde, white woman with blue eyes, and she has this certain look. And people have really locked in on that, and they’re asking, what is American Eagle valuing and promoting? And in response to those people, there’s a lot of outrage from the right, saying that people are way overreacting and they’re too woke these days. And – what? – it’s a crime to be a hot woman now?
SUMMERS: (Laughter) Oh, boy.
VENKAT: Even the White House chimed in, saying on X that this is just cancel culture running amok. Sydney Sweeney hasn’t commented, but today, American Eagle posted a statement on Instagram, saying the campaign, quote, “is and always was about the jeans.”
SUMMERS: I got to say, looking at this ad, it kind of feels like a huge shift from the past few years, when brands seemed to be doing everything they could, really, just to diversify their ads.
VENKAT: Totally. And even with American Eagle, like, in the past decade, their underwear brand, called Aerie, did become known for casting diverse models and using unretouched photos. I talked to a professor about all this. Her name is Sarah Banet-Weiser. She’s the dean at University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. And she told me that in her opinion, it’s impossible not to read that ad voiceover as a reflection of the current moment.
SARAH BANET-WEISER: You’re playing on the word gene, and you’re saying this is about good genes. And you’re literally going through – I’m white, I’m blonde, I have blue eyes, I have blue jeans, or whatever. It’s pretty hard to, like, spin that as not about some kind of racist, eugenic argument, especially in the cultural moment that we are in right now.
VENKAT: She says all of this is also political, and it’s notable that this ad is coming at a time when this administration is so focused on curbing immigration, on ending DEI policies. Trump himself has said so many times that he’s going to end woke in the U.S. And on social media, we’re seeing this rise of the trad wife – women embracing the role of a traditional housewife. And there’s also a growing movement on the right to get women to have more babies. Banet-Weiser says, hey, advertisers are smart. They’re not missing these cultural trends.
SUMMERS: Right, but if I get it correctly, the backlash about this ad isn’t just about the racial element, right?
VENKAT: Yeah, that’s right. A lot of folks are taking issue with the hypersexualized nature of the ads, especially since the company says the ad campaign is supposed to raise awareness about domestic violence, a cause Sweeney is passionate about. And 100% of the purchase price of the jeans actually is being donated to a crisis hotline. But it’s not even just that. Sweeney has become kind of known for taking roles or partnerships where her sexiness is center of attention, and she gets a lot of flak for that. But Banet-Weiser says, hello, people have been doing this forever – sex sells.
BANET-WEISER: It sells. So when women choose that path, we can’t, like, blame them necessarily for choosing that path. We should broaden our scope and say, why is this valued? Why are we continuing to put money into media campaigns that focus on the objectified female body?
SUMMERS: I mean, Mia, I just have to say that as I’ve been scrolling around online, it does seem like people are just putting a target on Sydney Sweeney. I mean…
VENKAT: Yeah.
SUMMERS: …Didn’t Doja Cat even make a video poking fun at her?
VENKAT: Totally. And that video has over 5 million views.
SUMMERS: Ooh.
VENKAT: Banet-Weiser points out that it’s not just sex that sells. So does controversy. Rage sells. You get the clicks when you rage post about Sweeney, right? And that’s why you could argue that this is a really successful ad. Everyone’s talking about it. And by the way, you don’t hear people calling out Jay Schottenstein, the CEO of American Eagle – a company whose stock went up right after this ad dropped, by the way. But you do hear them dunking on Sweeney.
SUMMERS: NPR’s Mia Venkat, thank you.
VENKAT: Thank you, Juana.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)