Celebrities Are Jumping Into The Sydney Sweeney AE Drama, And It's Getting Messier By The Minute
In case you missed it, American Eagle released new denim ads featuring Sydney last month, using the tagline "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans." One of the promotional videos shows the blond-haired, blue-eyed actor playing on the words of the campaign as she tells the camera: "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color." She then said, "My jeans are blue."
While AE described the launch as "a return to essential denim dressing," some took issue with the "great jeans" tagline, calling it a coded message promoting eugenics.
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@EllaYurman / American Eagle / Via Twitter: @EllaYurman
Some also criticized the hypersexualized nature of some of the videos and the apparent nod to Calvin Klein's super controversial 1980 ad with a then-15-year-old Brooke Shields.
@killvolo / American Eagle / Via Twitter: @killvolo
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And amid the controversy, celebs started weighing in. Here's what they said.
Doja Cat famously mocked Sydney's voice on TikTok:
@dojacat / Via tiktok.com
Courtney Stodden criticized AE for "pushing this hypersexualized 'All-American girl' image to sell JEANS" in a statement on Instagram.
She wrote, "First of all—this isn't about Sydney. I don't know her personally and this isn't about tearing another woman down. But I do think it's important we talk about the bigger picture."
She continued, "Let's be real: I have blonde hair, blue eyes and curves since I was a kid. I was sexualized by the system // powerful men before I was even old enough to understand what was happening. I've been there— marketed, minimized, misrepresented. So when I see a big-budget ad pushing this hypersexualized 'All-American girl' image to sell JEANS, all I can think is... here we go again."
"Another billionaire-backed fantasy being sold to us like it's harmless nostalgia," Courtney added. "But it's not...it's rooted in racism. It's also a recycled idea of womanhood created for the silly male gaze and mass consumption."
"We deserve better," Courtney said, as she also called out the original ad for its depictions of an "underage" Brooke Shields. "We are better."
Lizzo responded to the ad with satire. On Thursday, she took to Instagram to share a fake meme of herself wearing a denim outfit similar to the one Sydney wore in the ad. It had the words "If the Democrats won the election" written over it as Lizzo joked in the caption, "My jeans are black…"
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Sen. Ted Cruz defended Sydney from the "crazy Left" on X. Reacting to a New York Post article about the backlash, Ted wrote, "Wow. Now the crazy Left has come out against beautiful women. I'm sure that will poll well...."
@tedcruz / American Eagle / Via Twitter: @tedcruz
7th Heaven actor Jeremy London tweeted, "Nobody.. And I repeat nobody... Gives a fuck about what Sydney Sweeney is wearing in a stupid commercial."
@SirJeremyLondon / Via Twitter: @SirJeremyLondon
"We're so starved for ads with hot women we're losing it over Sydney Sweeney dressed like she's Jay Leno," added comedian Joe DeVito.
@JoeDeVitoComedy / Via Twitter: @JoeDeVitoComedy
Gabby Windey from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette called the AE videos "terrifying."
JD Vance said the left was blowing it out of proportion. "They're trying to sell, you know, sell jeans to kids in America," he explained on the Ruthless Podcast. "And they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing." He said, "It's like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election? Like I actually thought that one of the lessons they might take is we're going to be less crazy. The lesson they have apparently taken is we're going to attack people as Nazis for thinking Sydney Sweeney is beautiful. Great strategy, guys."
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Former race car driver and Trump supporter Danica Patrick didn't seem to see the issue with Sydney's ad. "Can anyone tell me what's wrong with the new AE ads?" she reportedly wrote on Instagram. "Very confused."
And Megyn Kelly called the backlash "absurd." "There's nothing wrong with being white," she said. "It's fine, she can be white, too. It's like, now, we're going to see an ad with a Black woman and the reference to genes, too, and that won't satisfy them."
In true fashion, Desi Lydic made fun of Sydney's accent — then she got serious and criticized the right-wing backlash, including Megyn Kelly for saying that white, blonde, and blue-eyed women are never "allowed" to be celebrated. "This is such bullshit," Desi expressed. "Blonde women have had constant representation, okay? In entertainment, fashion, in letter-turning. It's not that they want to see more white women. They want to see none of anyone else." She also said, "For a story about boobs, it sure has a lot of assholes."
Finally, Elon Musk laughed at how the whole thing brought Sydney more exposure "for her 'good genes.'"
@elonmusk / Via Twitter: @elonmusk
So far, Sydney herself hasn't directly responded to the backlash, but AE stood by the campaign in a statement shared to its social media accounts yesterday. You can read it here.
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