Sydney Sweeney’s Jeans

[Cortwater]

I’m just reading about the controversy over the Sydney Sweeney jeans advert and wondered what others thought about it.

AIBU to think it’s completely absurd?

It’s a play on the word jeans. It’s probably also a reference to the fact she’s attractive. I don’t think it’s offensive, or supportive of eugenics, or “fascist”.

Surely this is just people finding offence in anything?

Happy to be convinced otherwise.

What is the controversy about? What's it called?

I have no doubt that it was genuinely just a play on words and there was no intention to be offensive but when you’re coming up with this sort of thing you need to be aware of how things might be interpreted by all of your audience.

I think of all the beautiful young women out there it was incredibly shortsighted to pick one whose genes match those of the self proclaimed "master race". It wouldn't have been an issue with a white woman with brown hair, red hair, brown eye, green eye, still insensitive though. Literally anything other than blonde, white and blue eyed. I think when you talk about genes and start talking about great genes it's not a hop skip and a jump away from naziism. Especially because it's not an ad for health or physical prowess, it's literally how she looks.

Beautiful, white. young lady in an advert..and no one imagined controversy?!!!!! Its almost like they have broken the mould! It offends me not in any way whatsoever. People say brave,daring etc I think some company got sick of woke and for that I am a bit glad!!

I don't think American eagle are secret or subtle nazis though, I assume they just have the privilege that they don't think about racism or prejudice every day, so literally didn't see it. Which in itself is shocking to me.

This is it in a nutshell - its not hard to work it out.

I have to weigh in and say this is absolutely rage bait. Sydney Sweeney was chosen deliberately - her political leanings aren't exactly a secret. This is apparently their most expensive campaign to date, and to think they didn't know exactly what they were stirring up is naive. An ad this big would have been signed off by countless people and gone through focus groups.

You have to ask yourself why a major company feels so comfortable putting this out there in 2025. The whole thing is actually based on that old Brooke Shields campaign from the 70s, which was way more explicitly about "genes" - this feels like a deliberate nod to that era. They obviously liked that original concept but knew they couldn't use it outright today because of its controversial nature, so they've created this watered-down version instead. It's a dog whistle if I've ever seen one.

I think it's a massive fucking reach and the reaction is just bizarre.

Personally as a brown female, I don’t have an issue with it. It’s a struggling clothing brand partnering up with SS a young ‘woman of the moment’ for many of the younger generation. And it’s working for them in terms of adding value already to their trading figures.

I appreciate there’s a wider argument to be had that it limits the beauty ideal to pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes by having the tag line be a play on words about SS having great jeans/genes.

However, all companies do this in some shape or form, even where you have a say darker skinned or mixed race model, they still ‘idealise’ and promote a warped idea of what a beautiful woman is. They still all have impossibly flawless skin, slim bodies, long toned limbs, fantastic thick shiny hair, full lips, white even teeth. I think we’re missing the wider point which has always existed just to ensure that ad campaigns be more ‘diverse and inclusive ’ in their representation of women which let’s face it is a lot better than even the early 90s where it was rare to have darker skinned models or actresses reach the tops of their careers amd be represented widely in all media forms. But it’s definitely happening and hopefully the next stage is to include all skin types but also all the different body shapes and facial features that the real world has. However in this increasingly superficial era driven by social media, I’m not sure that will ever happen and sometimes I wonder if it’s even wanted given how much celebrity worshipping of the current conventually beautiful stars goes on and how the upcoming generation wants to be like them (either through permanent plastic surgery or lip filllers etc) rather than their own natural selves. If people really don’t support this type of marketing, I’m sure they’re capable of communicating it with their wallets to slowly force the change they want.

Agree with you OP. Absurd. Of course all this fuss caused by the folk complaint will result in good advertising for the company. I’d never heard of them before now. Might get myself a pair.

It's totally mental. She DOES have good genes plus it's the retro advert reference as aforementioned.

I think we have now reached a point where the media are so lacking in rigour or ideas that any random weirdo's confected aggro is reported as a serious issue.

And I know I’ll look good in them as I’m blonde with blue eyes. Glad to see some representation of myself on TV, even if some people want to slate it.

I think brands have finally remembered that all publicity is good publicity.

Seems to be working quite well for them.

Sales and shares are up.

Well done lefties! Hook, line, and sinker... 😁

I agree. Even if you think the reaction is over the top, aren’t ad agencies paid to think about things like this? Even if the thinking was “ffs we really need to avoid a backlash from the bloody woke lefties”, didn’t it come up? Just have the campaign feature a number of different women.

Or maybe it did come up, and they thought “no this is what we want, way more people will see our ad this way and the backlash will make people who hate woke culture side with us and buy our jeans”

Sydney sweeney’s ad has made you realise blonde blue eyed people look good in mid-blue jeans?
Looking good in jeans is nothing to do with hair/eye/skin colour, and everything to do with the fit and style.

So if they’d have put a woman of colour on the ad and said she had great genes there would have been no controversy? Who proclaimed this “master race”. some far right nut jobs? And hitler. So are you saying ads should never feature anyone with blonde hair and blue eyes? What about all those ads featuring people running and jumping saying “live healthy”. Should disabled people complain as they’re literally saying the only way to be healthy is to run and jump?

@Annoyedone I don't think those far right nut jobs are as far right as you think they are. As evidenced by a)this ad and b) the fact people are defending it. I think the call is coming from inside the building.

Also plenty of disabled people can run and finally I think I was fairly clear in that she's the wrong actress in an ad about superior genes. I love me a blonde haired, blue eyed, white actress in insurance ads. Fab. But I'm fairly certain you took from my post what you wanted to.

Watch you don't put your back out with that stretch.

I had to look it up. I would have just assumed it meant she was very conventionally attractive, the way all models are. I don't think anyone doubts that models have good physical attractiveness genes.

But it didn’t say superior genes. It said great genes.

Not much beats Bey in her Levi ad

Oh I’m sure they did it totally deliberately precisely because it’s anti-woke. Must play well in MAGA America.

Honestly? I expect the controversy was originally stirred up by the company itself (or its advertising agency) and other people have run with it. So much free publicity.

Plus, if the people who buy jeans are people who really like these adverts then that is great for them. It doesn’t matter if a few influencers claim to boycott them. “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” is a terrific slogan - people aren’t all that sophisticated.

I can see the appeal of these adverts. A healthy looking pretty young woman who doesn’t seem to have done anything weird to herself? Makes a change from fake lips, butt implants and mad eyebrows.

I can’t find anything tangible about her political leanings, only speculation. What is it you know?