Sydney Sweeney has recently taken part in an American Eagle campaign that has become subject to backlash.
The collaboration features a new limited-edition wide-leg denim design, dubbed The Sydney Jean, along with a rollout of promotional content that’s now facing serious criticism for racially insensitive messaging — and what some have described as flirtations with eugenics-era language, per the Standard.
At the heart of the controversy is the tagline: “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Genes.” The phrase appears in campaign videos and store displays, often crossed out and replaced with the word “Jeans.”
In one clip, Sweeney approaches a storefront poster, wipes it clean, and swaps the text herself. The playful pun was seemingly intended to be cheeky. But for many viewers, the wordplay crossed a line.
In one ad, Sweeney says: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour... My jeans are blue.”
A voiceover then follows with: “Sydney Sweeney has great Jeans.” The actress even nods to the pun onscreen with a wink: “See what I did there, right?”
But not everyone found the humor clever. Critics on social media were quick to connect the phrase “great genes” to historical eugenics — a discredited and dangerous ideology rooted in selective breeding, often used to justify racism, ableism, and white supremacy.
One X user wrote: “I like Sydney Sweeney and American Eagle as much as the next guy but ‘we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children’ is a crazy tagline for selling jeans.”
Another commented: “Maybe I'm too f***ing woke. But getting a blue-eyed, blonde, white woman and focusing your campaign around her having perfect genetics feels weird.”
The backlash snowballed, with commenters accusing American Eagle of failing to consider the campaign’s racial implications.
“This is what happens when you have no people of color in a room,” one user posted under an Instagram ad.
“Particularly in a time like this. This ad campaign got so caught up in this ‘clever’ play on words and this stunt, the people in the room missed what was so blatantly obvious to anyone not White.”
Some went even further, calling the campaign “Nazi” and “tone-deaf,” with others referencing Godwin’s Law — the idea that every online debate, if it lasts long enough, eventually results in a Nazi comparison.
Adding fuel to the controversy, the campaign also includes a charitable angle that many say was poorly communicated.
According to American Eagle, the butterfly stitched into the back pocket of The Sydney Jean is a symbol for domestic violence awareness.
Furthermore, the brand confirmed that 100 percent of proceeds from sales will go to the Crisis Text Line, a 24/7 mental health support nonprofit.
But that mission has been overshadowed by the optics.