Sydney Sweeney has clearly been media trained. After months of silence and mounting online criticism, the actress has finally addressed her controversial American Eagle campaign in her GQ “Men of the Year” cover story, though her comments were characteristically brief.
For those unfamiliar, the backlash began earlier this year when Sweeney fronted American Eagle’s campaign titled “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.” The concept played on the pun between “jeans” and “genes,” a creative decision that many online found questionable.
TikTok users accused the brand of promoting eugenics, critics labelled it a conservative dog whistle, and even former U.S. President Donald Trump weighed in, calling it the “HOTTEST ad out there.”
“If not eugenics, why eugenics shaped,” one commenter wrote under a clip of Sweeney twirling in denim, while another asked, “are you promoting your jeans or her body?”
So, what did Sydney herself make of the cultural firestorm that followed?
“I did a jean ad,” she told GQ. “I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans. All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life.”
When asked about Trump’s praise, Sydney said, “it was surreal,” adding that she was filming the third season of Euphoria at the time when she suddenly became the world’s top trending topic. “I’m filming Euphoria, so I’m working 16-hour days and I don’t really bring my phone on set, so I work and then I go home and I go to sleep. So I didn’t really see a lot of it.”
In a surprising turn, Sweeney appeared more focused on correcting misinformation about the company’s performance than addressing the campaign’s cultural optics.
“I was aware of the numbers as it was going,” Sweeney said.
“So when I saw all the headlines of in-store visits were down a certain percentage, none of it was true. It was all made up, but nobody could say anything because [the company was] in their quiet period. So it was all just a lot of talk. And because I knew at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was great jeans, it didn’t affect me one way or the other.”
While others unpacked the concerning implications of a blonde, blue-eyed woman leading a “good jeans/genes” campaign, Sweeney’s focus remained squarely on the numbers and, fittingly, on her denim.
