Despite the unexpected backlash, the “Euphoria” actress remains firm in her support of the advertisement.
WASHINGTON — Sydney Sweeney has addressed the uproar surrounding her American Eagle advertisement, sharing with GQ that the intensity of the reaction caught her off guard. However, she remains largely indifferent to the ensuing online controversy.
“It was just a jeans commercial,” the “Euphoria” actress commented. “The response was definitely not what I anticipated, but I adore jeans. They’re my everyday go-to outfit—just jeans and a T-shirt.”
At 28, Sweeney became the face of the “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” campaign, which ignited a cultural debate due to its controversial “great genes” tagline.
Critics interpreted the phrase as an allusion, either intentional or not, to eugenics, an outdated and discredited idea that suggested human enhancement through selective breeding.
This campaign ignited discussions about race, Western beauty ideals, and the backlash against perceived “woke” American cultural and political landscapes.
Since the campaign’s debut, social media users, activists and politicians weighed in.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance notably defended the ad, which Sweeney told GQ was “surreal.”
American Eagle responded to the criticism in August, writing in a statement on its Instagram account, the ad campaign “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. Great jeans look good on everyone.”
Sweeney added she didn’t follow much of the discourse while filming season three of “Euphoria.”
“I kind of just put my phone away,” she told GQ. “I’m working 16-hour days and I don’t really bring my phone on set, so I work and then I go home and I go to sleep. So I didn’t really see a lot of it.”
When asked about the criticism that “white people shouldn’t joke about genetic superiority” amid current political tensions, Sweeney responded, “I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.”
She also downplayed speculation that the backlash hurt the brand. “When I saw all the headlines of in-store visits were down a percentage, none of it was true,” she said, adding that she was aware of American Eagle’s rising numbers during the campaign. “Because I knew at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was great jeans, it didn’t affect me one way or the other.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
