Young people are calling out American Eagle’s “great jeans” campaign with Sydney Sweeney The new denim ad’s central slogan is “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” and is paired with a campaign video where Sweeney explains, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, like hair and eye color…” before joking that her “jeans are blue.” And while it sounds simple on the surface, it’s sparked accusations of the brand promoting eugenics and glorifying White beauty standards. Many critics—Gen Z vocally among them—took issue with American Eagle using Sweeney, a White actress with blonde hair and blue eyes, as the face of a campaign that centers on genetics—a choice some argue subtly reinforces ideals of racial superiority. Others have been pointing out that it seems to reference a controversial ‘80s Calvin Klein ad that sexualized a then 15-year-old Brooke Shields, noting that Sweeney is also portrayed through a heavily sexualized lens, despite the brand’s primarily young, female audience. (Ironic given that Sweeney’s partnership also includes fundraising for domestic violence awareness.) While...
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