Actress Sydney Sweeney is facing backlash over a new American Eagle advertisement that plays on the pun 'great jeans' and 'great genes'. In the campaign video, Sweeney, who is blonde and blue-eyed, discusses genetics before joking about her blue jeans. Critics have accused the ad of being a racist dog-whistle and even comparing it to Nazi propaganda, sparking intense online debate that reached the White House.
The controversy has been amplified by conservative commentators, with White House communications manager Steven Cheung calling it 'cancel culture run amok' and Megyn Kelly decrying the 'lunatic left'. Fox News reportedly covered the backlash 28 times more than the Epstein controversy in the same week.
Meanwhile, a separate Dunkin' advertisement for its 'Golden Hour' refresher features actor Gavin Casalegno saying, 'This tan? Genetics.' This has led to further online criticism, with some questioning why brands are suddenly fixated on genetics. However, the author notes that advertising often uses unrelated imagery, citing the famous Cadbury's drumming gorilla ad.
The author suggests that while two examples do not constitute a trend, the repeated references to genetics may reflect a shift away from 'woke-vertising' that dominated the past decade. Brands now appear less concerned with appearing progressive, as seen in previous campaigns like Kendall Jenner's 2017 Pepsi ad.
