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Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
Sydney Sweeney 'jeans' ad signals major cultural turning point, industry experts say
Call it Jean theory. Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad sent shockwaves through the advertising world, winning immense praise and triggering fierce backlash as well – but experts are saying that the ad represents a profound cultural shift. Industry analysts are saying that the ad represents a cultural turning point away from hyper-wokeism and towards more traditional forms of advertising. "The Sydney Sweeney ad is not just selling a product; it is signaling a cultural turning point. For years, brands have bent over backwards to appease a small but loud activist class, producing ads that felt forced, joyless, and polarizing. Instead of speaking to consumers, they pandered to an ideology that policed language, celebrated grievance, and punished anything deemed insufficiently progressive. This ad does the opposite. It is confident, fun, and refuses to apologize for appealing to mainstream sensibilities," psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert told Fox News Digital. The "Euphoria" star's American Eagle sultry ad, which featured her decked out in a denim jacket and jeans with the tagline "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans," has been celebrated for its unapologetic embrace of a conventionally attractive spokesmodel and panned as an endorsement of "eugenics" by woke critics. "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color," Sweeney says in the ad. "My jeans are blue." The jeans/genes pun left many hyper-left viewers incensed, with many going so far as to compare the ad for pants to full-blown Nazism. "Oh cute she's in her Nazi propaganda era," one social media user wrote. "Maybe I'm too woke. But getting a blue-eyed, blonde, white woman and focusing your campaign around her having perfect genetics feels weird," an X user wrote. But others celebrated the ad, with Sen. Ted Cruz accused the "crazy Left" of coming out against beautiful women in a post on X. President Trump has also praised the ad after finding out that Sweeney is a registered Republican. "Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the 'HOTTEST' ad out there. It's for American Eagle, and the jeans are 'flying off the shelves. Go get 'em Sydney!' Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. The American Eagle ad comes in the wake of several high-profile woke advertisements that spelled disaster for major American brands. Bud Light sparked a national outcry and saw a steep drop in sales after the enlisted transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a brand partnership. Jaguar sparked major backlash after they released a 2024 ad featuring androgynous models wearing futuristic clothing that many viewers branded as woke. The luxury automaker's CEO Adrian Mardell announced Thursday that he is retiring, just months after the ad debuted. "The Sydney Sweeney ad campaign is striking a cultural nerve because it signals a return to traditional branding strategies: sex appeal, simplicity, and star power. What makes it stand out isn't just the creative - it's the backlash to the backlash. For years, brands have chased ideological alignment with 'woke' values, but consumer fatigue is setting in. This ad leans into mass appeal rather than moral signaling, and it's working," business and entertainment podcaster Shawn French told Fox News Digital. American Eagle refused to back down in light of the controversy, and released a statement saying the ad "is and always was about the jeans," in an implicit rebuke to the eugenics comparisons. "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans' is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We'll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way," the statement read. "Great jeans look good on everyone." Juda Engelmayer, a crisis PR expert who reps high-profile clients such as Harvey Weinstein, says that while woke may not be completely dead yet, the ad is benefitting from an environment in which wokeness is in retreat. In previous years, woke activists could engage in cancel culture tactics that could severely hurt a brand for not hewing the party line, but the energy to fight over trivial cultural issues appears to have waned, Engelmayer said. "It's not resonating as much. You're not seeing them screaming in protest as they did on other issues. Even people who are more on the woke side are rolling their eyes," he told Fox News Digital.
New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
Fleeing Texas Dems side with Newsom as redistricting standoff continues: ‘All out war'
Advertisement California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is ready to fight 'fire with fire' as state Republican lawmakers try to enact redistricting in Texas, opposing the move though promising to pursue similar measures if needed. At a press conference on Monday, Newsom said he supports independent redistricting, as well as a national framework, and a proposal being advanced in the legislature reinforces what he supports. 'The proposal that we're advancing with the legislature has a trigger only if they move forward, to dismantling the protocols that are well-established,' the governor said. 'Would the state of California move forward in kind? Fighting? Yes, fire with fire.' When asked about a meeting between California Democrats on Sunday night, during which time they drafted or were almost done with the draft of redistricting maps, and whether he had seen those maps, Newsom said he had not. Advertisement But he said there has been an ongoing series of conversations into the evening last night, which continued on Monday morning and will continue until Democrats land on a process. 'That process has to have the concurrence, the support of two-thirds of the legislature,' he said. 'The maps, we believe, should be transparent. They should be provided in a transparent way to the public, and as a consequence, those maps are being processed and will be brought to light.' 6 California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference with Texas lawmakers at the Governor's Mansion on July 25, 2025 in Sacramento, California. Getty Images At the end of the day, though, Newsom said the people of California will have the ultimate say. Advertisement 'We will offer them the opportunity to make judgments for themselves, again, only if Texas moves forward,' Newsom said. 'I'll reinforce that we believe it should be a national model, independent national redistricting, and it would revert back to its original form, but it's done in response to the existential realities that we're now facing. Things have changed, facts have changed, so we must change.' 'They've triggered this response and we're not going to roll over and we're going to fight fire with fire, but we're going to do so not just punching with the weight of the fourth largest economy, the most populous state in our union, the size of 21 state populations combined,' he continued. 'We also will punch above our weight in terms of the impact of what we're doing, and I think that should be absorbed by those in the Texas delegation. Whatever they are doing will be neutered here in the state of California, and they will pay that price.' 6 California Gov. Gavin Newsom met with Texas lawmakers to push back on Texas's redistricting maneuver that aims to tilt the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections and on how California plans to respond. Getty Images California GOP Chairwoman Corrin Rankin told Fox News Digital that Newsom's actions could threaten the constitutional rights of Californians while also setting a dangerous precedent. Advertisement 'While Governor Newsom frames this redistricting as a defensive move, it undermines California's nationally respected, voter-approved Citizens Redistricting Commission, and if successful, sets a dangerous precedent that voters' choices can be overruled whenever politicians find it politically convenient,' Rankin said. 'Our primary concern is safeguarding Californians' constitutional rights against partisan manipulation disguised as defending democracy; true democracy means empowering voters, not politicians, to decide representation.' Dozens of Texas Democrats fled their state and went to Chicago and New York on Sunday night in an effort to block a redistricting vote on Monday. 6 President Donald Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott participate in a round table event at the Hill Country Youth Event Center to discuss last week's flash flooding on July 11, 2025 in Kerrville, Texas. Getty Images Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has since threatened to arrest and expel the lawmakers if they do not return by Monday afternoon. Shortly after Abbott released his statement, the Texas House Democratic Caucus issued a simple response, writing: 'Come and take it.' The statement also described Republicans' proposed districts, which would potentially secure five new GOP US House seats in next year's midterm elections, as a 'racist mid-decade redistricting scheme.' Abbott criticized the Democrats' dramatic departure, saying that 'real Texans don't run from a fight.' On Monday evening, Illinois lawmakers hosted Texas Democrats for a press conference, during which time none of the lawmakers took a single question from the press. Advertisement 6 Abbott speaks to a group of event attendees for his Parent Empowerment Night event where he advocated for school choice and vouchers at Temple Christian School in Fort Worth, Texas, on March 6, 2025. TNS Still, Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., welcomed her colleagues and said they could stay as long as they wanted because they believed in what they were doing. 'What you're doing and what…they're trying to do in Texas affects you guys, but it affects the whole country,' she said. 'When you want to remove five Democrats…that hurts us in the House.' She explained that when there are not enough Democrats, things like the Big Beautiful Bill, or as she referred to it as 'the Big Ugly Bill,' and other Republican initiatives get through. Advertisement 'They are trying to destroy our democracy, destroy fairness in our country,' Kelly said. 'And unfortunately, they're starting with Texas. But we want you to know, we stand by your side.' Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., accused Abbott of not stepping up for the people affected by devastating floods in the Hill Country region of Texas. 6 The Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. Bloomberg via Getty Images Specifically, he accused Abbott of not having a special session to help families rebuild, but instead of doing 'the bidding' of President Donald Trump to 'banish Democrats' from the federal delegation. Advertisement Krishnamoorthi then directed his comments to Abbott, saying, 'don't mess with Texas,' because the people standing with him represent Texas. 'You can silence them. You can smear them. You can saddle them with debts and fins. But you cannot intimidate them,' Krishnamoorthi said. 'You can gerrymander the hell out of that map. Guess what? Two can play that game. That's right. Other states will do exactly the same thing and neutralize what you're trying to do in Texas.' Other lawmakers standing side-by-side in Illinois chose to accuse Trump's policies of being race-driven. Texas State Rep. Ana-Maria Rodriguez Ramos said Trump's policies hurt working families. Advertisement 'That is nothing short of racism,' she said. 'He is coming after all of us who don't look like him and his Republican colleagues in the Texas House.' Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, followed Rodriguez Ramos with more accusations of racism, saying Republicans are doing what Trump has insisted be done. 'I want you to know that we didn't introduce the race card when this message was sent by and through the Justice Department to the State of Texas, to our attorney general,' he said. 'They mentioned the race card because they talked about racial gerrymandering. They brought it up, and when they brought it up, they did it, knowing that this was a buzz word. It was a trigger.' 'They know that that's a buzz word that people would respond to in Texas, but we are going to respond to that buzz word by telling them that your racism is not going to change democracy in the state of Texas,' Green continued. 'In the United States of America, racism is going to be met with our taking a stand for democracy. You take a stand for racism, we will stand for democracy, and we will win.' 6 Abbott criticized the Democrats' dramatic departure, saying that 'real Texans don't run from a fight.' Bloomberg via Getty Images Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas, said she was pleased that states like California and New York were standing up for Texas Democrats because, once it happens in Texas, it will spread to other states. She called the issue a 'national war,' and 'an all-out war' in which everything is on the table. 'We come from a state of great pride, and I never thought as a Texan, as an elected member of the Texas House of Representatives and now as an elected member from Texas to the United States House of Representatives, that I would see the governor of the proud state of Texas bend a knee to a felon from New York,' Johnson added. 'I never thought I'd see the day, but here we are.' Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, was also standing with fellow Democrats in Illinois and accused Abbott of talking 'a lot of noise.' She also accused Republicans of being 'weak.' 'The difference is they expect Democrats to kind of be the nice guys that we are,' Crockett said. 'They expect us to take the punch and say thank you. Well, I am here to tell you not only are we going to punch back, but we about to beat you down.' Still, Abbott told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday that Texas is doing what it is allowed to do by law. He also accused state Democrats of doing something 'un-Texas' by turning their back on Texans and not dealing with the flooding issues still echoing across the state. Abbott said four of the five seats that could change because of redistricting will be primarily Hispanic. 'These are seats where Democrats are having to come to grips with reality,' he said, explaining that Democrats are losing votes to Hispanics and Black voters in Texas. He also said Democrats are 'freaking out' because they are realizing Texas has the authority to redistrict. 'Texas will continue to fight for what is right,' Abbott said. Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom and Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.
New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
Molly Sims shows off figure in polka dot bikini during family yacht day
Advertisement Molly Sims is catching some rays. The 52-year-old actress and model posted a series of photos from a day at the beach with her family, including some of her in a black and white polka dot bikini. In one of the photos, Sims can be seen standing on the edge of a yacht, looking out into the distance with her hand in the air, accessorizing the look with black sunglasses and a red pedicure. One of the other photos showed her taking a mirror selfie inside a home in the same bikini, while others showed her walking around the quaint beach town of Shelter Island in a sheer white long-sleeve cover-up, black sunhat and black sandals Advertisement The other photos in the post featured photos of her kids and a video of her jumping off the yacht and into the ocean. She captioned the post, 'Sunday 😉🌊 👙.' 'Bikini deats please!!!!' one fan wrote in the comments section, with another adding, 'Link bikini?!! 😍🔥🔥.' 3 Molly Sims posted a series of photos from a day at the beach with her family, including some of her in a black and white polka dot bikini. Instagram/@mollybsims Others chimed in writing, 'You look gorgeous🔥,' 'You're sooooo freaking beautiful!!!' and '❤️ ❤️❤️❤️ the best day ever ❤️❤️❤️.' Advertisement This isn't the first time Sims has posted photos of herself in a bikini this summer, as she shared a series of Instagram photos featuring her hanging out with a group of her girlfriends and also enjoying a day at the beach, jokingly captioning the post, 'Bye kids 😜.' 3 Sims can be seen standing on the edge of a yacht, looking out into the distance with her hand in the air, accessorizing the look with black sunglasses and a red pedicure. Instagram/@mollybsims In the photos, Sims can be seen in a purple bikini with pink floral designs on it. She accessorized the swimsuit with a pair of sunglasses, a pink necklace and gold chain, as well as gold bracelets and a few rings. Back in 2023, Sims shared one of her secrets to maintaining her bikini body is drinking a cup of bone broth. She posted a photo of her mug on Instagram stories, calling it a game-changer. Advertisement 'Anti-ageing [sic], good for digestion and gut, helps my joints after workouts, better sleep… this has been game changing for me,' she wrote. 3 Sims attends the Happy Gilmore 2 World Premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center on July 21, 2025 in New York Net More recently, the actress shared her tips to staying fit when she spoke with Fox News Digital in November 2024. She explained that she focuses on eating a lot of protein throughout the day and advised it's best to get most of 'your carbs in night.' Her biggest piece of advice, however, was keeping in mind that it is not one or two nights of poor choices that 'packs on the pounds,' adding it's the habit of eating 'just a little bit here. A little bit there.' 'If you have children. Do not eat their food and then eat your food,' she explained. 'So, the chicken fingers, the pizza, the pasta, the f—— tater tots, the leftover fries. That alone. You don't even realize a little bit here, a little bit here, a little bit here.'
