Good or bad, this campaign is a smash hit

If Sydney Sweeney pitched chickpeas everyone would be eating hummus.
It would be inevitable. She slips on a plunging top and coos about legumes and – boom! – sales spike at Whole Foods. At this point, Ms. Sweeney could sell microchips to the Amish. The actress who has appeared in “Euphoria,” “The White Lotus” and countless teen boy fantasies is one of the It Girls of 2025.
She is ascendant. All marketing distortion fields curve around her curves.
So it seemed like a no-brainer for American Eagle to tap her for a new ad campaign: “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.” But since we are trapped in the culture wars, one ad in particular set off a stitch-busting backlash. And, no, it’s not the one where she burns rubber in a vintage muscle car.
In the controversial spot, Sweeney is reclining and seductively buttoning her jeans. She is also wearing a denim jacket with nothing underneath, as one does. Her vocal fry is slow and sticky. It’s not clear if she is speaking English or Velveeta: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.”
Cue the backlash. Were those 23 words a racist dog whistle? Is Ms. Sweeney a white supremacist in a Victoria’s Secret body? Is American Eagle using casual fashion to telegraph eugenics? Does wearing these jeans reveal your Nazi sympathies or staunch support of mall segregation?
Occam’s Razor hints at a different answer: This was just lazy copywriting.
Someone in an agency got jazzed by the homophone jeans/genes: I know, what if we play on Sydney’s GENES to help sell JEANS? Get it? If American Eagle sold flour, they’d enlist a florist pitchman to yammer on about flower as a clever way to kick-start a cake baking hysteria. But the Sweeney campaign is a success because everyone is talking about it.
We are long past the monoculture. Getting an ad to penetrate the fortress of noise is a feat in itself. Has there been an ad in the last five years that has made headlines around the world? To consult Greatest Ads Ever listicles is to feel like you are in a time capsule: Volkswagen’s “Think Small” (1959), The Pepsi Challenge (1975), Wendy’s “Where’s The Beef?” (1984), Apple’s 1984 (1984), Nike’s “Just Do It” (1988), Budweiser’s “Whassup?” (1999).
Since then – with notable exceptions granted to Dove and Old Spice – advertising has struggled to crack the zeitgeist. The quest for mainstream bulls-eyes gradually got downgraded into niche buckshot: Maybe we should spread out our national buy on podcasts? Maybe we should sponsor an influencer? Maybe we should put billboards on food trucks? Maybe we should enlist famous pets?
“Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” is a lesson for all advertisers: Be provocative.
After Donald Trump discovered Sweeney is a registered Republican who has visited shooting ranges, he declared her contribution to Madison Avenue as the “‘HOTTEST ad out there. It’s for American Eagle and the jeans are ‘flying off the shelves.’ Go get ’em Sydney!”
American Eagle stock surged by more than 20 per cent, even if it was unwise for a 79-year-old desperately trying to distract from the Epstein files to apply “HOTTEST” to a 27-year-old. It’s also clear the doofus-in-chief has no idea these jeans allegedly flying off the shelves were likely manufactured in China, Mexico, India or Vietnam. Mr. President, they’re not made in Boise.
American Eagle? More like Bangladesh Trogon.
I look forward to the tariff he soon slaps on Sydney Sweeney’s dog.
But thanks to this accidental brouhaha, American Eagle finally has a hit ad.
Those on the left are railing against racist subtexts and unattainable beauty standards. Those on the right are railing against lefty snowflakes and cancel culture. They are also claiming to finally have reason to love Sydney Sweeney. Get real. These MAGA dudes would love Sweeney even if TMZ paparazzi snapped her reading “Das Kapital” in a Che Guevara sun hat while lounging next to AOC.
Sweeney’s controversial campaign is a perfect fit for the ad industry.
Whatever your takeaway, the point is you have a takeaway. Did you have a takeaway after the last ad you saw for life insurance or dual-zone mattresses? You did not. For the first time in a long time, an ad became a story. This is great news for an industry lost in the labyrinth of a culture splintered into a billion parts. The Gap should come up with something edgy for the Rock.
In those blue jeans, with that sultry whisper, Sydney Sweeney is an inkblot.
Everyone sees and hears what they want to see and hear.
This is advertising at its finest.