Sydney Sweeney’s ‘good jeans’ advert: An ‘uncomfortable’ watch
An advert for an American jeans brand, starring Sydney Sweeney, has sparked controversy over its tagline about her “great jeans”. Some say it echoes white supremist rhetoric, while others say the conversation has been taken out of context.
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In brief…
- Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle adverts have sparked debate over what some claim are references to genetic supremacy.
- Jon Sopel describes the advert as an “uncomfortable” watch because of the advert’s presentation of “perfection”.
- Emily Maitlis says “aggressive white supremacy” on social media may have warped the way people view everything today.
What’s the story?
"Sydney Sweeney has great jeans" – snappy advert line to sell denim, or does it hold more sinister undertones?
That's been the online debate since a new advert for American Eagle jeans, starring the Euphoria and White Lotus actress, premiered.
To some, it's a simple play-on-words about the good looks of the 27-year-old actress. For others it holds white supremest undertones, referencing her blonde hair and blue eyes, seven months into a Trump presidency with a rise in fascist rhetoric now worryingly common in the US.
"Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour. My jeans are blue," she says in one of the advertisements.
“It has sparked something of a backlash amongst people who say: ‘How tone deaf are you in this day and age, with all the race baiting and the white nationalist chat that goes on to do something that talks about genetics’,” Emily Maitlis explains on The News Agents.
Sweeney was previously linked to Trump's MAGA movement, when she was seen celebrating a family birthday party with attendees wearing red "Make sixty great again" caps.
"Honestly I feel like nothing I say can help the conversation," she told British G2 in November 2022 about the backlash.
"It’s been turning into a wildfire and nothing I can say will take it back to the correct track."
What’s The News Agents’ take?
Emily questions whether the backlash is just “contested outrage,” saying that the advert has a “bad dad joke at the heart of it”, one that she’s heard her own dad make several times.
"Can I really get the energy up to care about this?” she asks.
“Big wow. She’s a very pretty woman advertising clothes – this is not a million miles away from anything we've seen before”.
“Now, everything you see on X feels more aggressively nationalist, and that is what is making us think in this way, about this particular advert. Whereas a few years ago, I don't think it would have even turned my head,” Emily says.
Jon Sopel believes there is some validity in the backlash that the advert has received, and that whilst advertising intentionally aims to provoke and get a reaction, there is something “uncomfortable” about the Sweeney ad.
“I always think that if you're a person of colour, and the one thing that is presented as perfection is white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes, it must be a pretty uncomfortable place to be,” he says.
He adds that the narrative in the advert sounds like it is talking about a “master race” of people: “the very picture of a good Aryan Nazi”.
Jon believes that whilst there’s something uncomfortable about the ad, there’s also something uncomfortable in the idea of opposing its release.
"The logical extension of this would be: If you've got blonde hair and blue eyes, you can't appear in an ad, for fear that it might be misconstrued - and that would be just as ridiculous.
"Honestly, it's an advert. I'm sure the advertising company is thrilled.”