You knew this was coming — it’s 2025, and apparently even a denim ad can trigger a full-on political meltdown.
American Eagle’s new campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney — yes, that Sydney Sweeney of Euphoria and The White Lotus fame — is being blasted online for “eugenics,” “white supremacy,” and, of course, “Nazi propaganda.” Why? Because the tagline says, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” a pun on “great genes.”
In one clip, Sweeney looks at a poster of herself with the word “genes,” which is then crossed out and replaced with “jeans.” Add a close-up of her blue eyes, and the internet outrage machine went into overdrive.
This is an actual paragraph published by the Washington Post, in which one of the Post’s style writers seems to suggest American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ad campaign is actually a racist DHS dog whistle.
Really great journalism, guys! pic.twitter.com/J0pBWJjMFg
— Elle Purnell (@_ellepurnell) July 28, 2025
On TikTok, X, and Threads, critics are actually calling this a white supremacist dog whistle — over a wordplay in a jeans ad. It’s the kind of reach that would make Simone Biles jealous. One video pans to Sweeney saying, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring,” then zooms in on her eyes. That’s the evidence. That’s what supposedly transforms a denim campaign into coded Nazi messaging.
Neither Sweeney nor American Eagle have responded to the accusations (smart move), but the fallout has been enough to push the brand to feature a different model — notably nonwhite — in its latest post, which some commenters immediately labeled “damage control.” Because of course.
Have you considered many journalists are just mentally ill? https://t.co/Sm8iKXuE9R
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) July 28, 2025
Let’s also not ignore the part no one’s talking about: all proceeds from Sweeney’s limited-edition jeans are being donated to the Crisis Text Line for domestic violence awareness. So yes, this “white supremacy ad” is also funding mental health support for abuse survivors.
The backlash to the backlash has been swift. Plenty of people online are mocking the outrage as yet another example of the cultural left seeing racism and fascism in every corner of mainstream life. Some on the right are outright praising the campaign for being, in their words, unapologetically not woke — a move they say signals a pendulum swing back toward traditional marketing and aesthetics.
