American Eagle responded to the controversy surrounding their campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney.
The brand took to Instagram on Friday, August 1, to react to the negative feedback they received after Sweeney, 27, seductively posed in their denim while touting that she has “great jeans.
“‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans,” the message read. “Her jeans. Her story.”
The statement added, “We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”
Fans shared their mixed reactions to the message in the comments section.
“Say ‘sorry not sorry’ without saying ‘sorry not sorry,’” one wrote. Another added, “Oop this was not the reply.” Others supported the brand, commenting, “This is so good 👏 no apologies needed.”
American Eagle’s statement comes after they faced loads of backlash surrounding their campaign, in which Sweeney gushed about how great her “jeans” are while playing into the double entendre with “genes.”.
In one video, Sweeney said, “My body’s composition is determined by my genes,” as a camera zoomed in on her cleavage. “Hey, eyes up here,” she told the camera. A narrator’s voice then said, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”
In another campaign video, she recreated Brooke Shields’ controversial 1980s Calvin Klein ad while pulling her pants up as she lay on the floor. In the clip, she shared a message about how “the secret of life lies in the genetic code,” a nod to Shields’ line, “Genes are fundamental in determining the characteristics of an individual and passing on these characteristics to succeeding generations.”
Both ads sparked conversations of eugenics, which is a discredited belief that aimed to improve human genetics. Eugenics was a racially biased study that was adopted with the Nazi party and is associated with white supremacy.
In another ad, Sweeney played on the color of her pants and her eye color, saying, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.”
Social media users shared their thoughts on the statement, writing via X, “Sydney Sweeney and American Eagle promoting eugenics and pushing the aryan race Nazi propaganda was not in my 2025 bingo card.” Another commented, “American Eagle needs to delete those Sydney Sweeney ads. They are genuinely scary.”
Sweeney has not yet commented on the ad. Luxury Handbag Shopping reached out to her rep for comment but did not immediately hear back.
