American Eagle under fire as Sydney Sweeney ad courts backlash

Experts explain why American Eagle’s controversial ad campaign featuring the White Lotus star was no accident — and who it is really aimed at.

Sydney Sweeney fronts controversial campaign for US clothing brand American Eagle

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

US clothing brand American Eagle is embroiled in a media firestorm after an ad campaign, featuring actor Sydney Sweeney, was accused of racism.

The White Lotus and Euphoria actor has fronted a sexy campaign promoting the brand’s denim range, with a play on words tagline. The campaign launched with the tagline “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Genes” with the word “genes” crossed out and replaced with “jeans”. This has now been ­replaced by the line “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans”.

In one campaign ad, which has now been removed from social channels, Sweeney said: “My body’s composition is determined by my genes. Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour.”

The end line was delivered ­directly to camera, with Sweeney stating, “My jeans are blue.”

While the campaign aimed to “celebrate denim” and “further elevate [American Eagle’s] position as the #1 jeans brand for Gen Z”, according to an American Eagle statement, it has instead sparked a wave of public backlash with accusations of “eugenics” and racism.

The brand has been accused of playing to racist ideologies that blonde hair and blue eyes are the epitome of beauty ideals. It has also been accused of targeting young conservatives in the political landscape of Donald Trump’s America.

Sydney Sweeney in the American Eagle. Picture: American Eagle

While the company is yet to comment on the backlash, advertising experts believe the controversy was an intended outcome by American Eagle.

Bureau of Everything strategy founder, and regular panellist on Gruen, Emily Taylor said the strategy was “100 per cent deliberate”.

“Sydney Sweeney is a big get for a brand endorsement and once she was on board, she would have agreed to the idea,” she said.

“This ad will have gone through the team who wrote it, the client, the executives at American Eagle who had to see the work and sign off the spend on Sydney Sweeney. Sydney Sweeney’s manager, herself and the director. And if in that journey no one flagged this as an issue that is insensitive, at best, and eugenics, at worst, then it suggests that they have consciously and strategically decided to do it.

“This is about building appeal and desirability with a certain target audience, a young, probably Republican audience, and they have accepted the controversy that will come out around the campaign in exchange for the ­attention that it will drive.”

The campaign has also come under fire for seeming to recreate the controversial Calvin Klein ads from the 1980s, which featured a 14-year-old Brooke Shields and were criticised for over-sexualising the teenager.

Ms Taylor said the highly sexually charged campaign jarred with the launch of “The Sydney Jean”, which is a limited-run product featuring a butterfly motif on the back pocket to promote domestic violence awareness, with 100 per cent of the sales to be donated to non-profits.

“To have this very overly sexualised ad with profits going to victims of domestic violence feels really insensitive as well. It’s just got layers and layers of wrongness in it,” she said.

The use of Sweeney was a significant coup for American Eagle, which is under pressure to see significant return on investment from the campaign following the impact of US tariffs and a slower consumer market. The initial campaign launch saw shares leap 7 per cent.