American Eagle on Sydney Sweeney Jeans Ad Controversy

American Eagle is speaking out. 

The clothing company—which sparked controversy with its ad campaign starring Sydney Sweeney—has addressed the backlash from critics claiming the company was promoting eugenics by using a play on jeans/genes. 

“‘Sydney Sweeney has great jeans’ is and always was about the jeans,” American Eagle wrote in an Instagram statement Aug. 1. “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.”

And last month, even a staff person of the White House spoke out about the conversations surrounding the ad, with Director of Communications Steven Cheung writing on X July 29, “Cancel culture run amok.”

For her part, Sydney has mostly avoided the crossfire, only sharing a single post from the campaign to her Instagram grid, and otherwise posting her typical content of her pups and day-to-day activities.  

The ads, which were first released July 23, featured Sweeney, as well as her German shepherd Sully Bear, in videos and photos of her donning the brand’s denim that appeared very sexualized, with one video even seeing the Anyone But You star joke as the camera panned down her body, “eyes up here.”