By: Ashirah Newton
In late July, a jeans ad campaign from American Eagle, featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, most famous for her roles on television shows like Euphoria and White Lotus was met with swift backlash due to the use of coded language like “great jeans” leading many critics to believe that the clothing and accessories retailer were pushing eugenics.
Sydney Sweeney stars in American Eagle’s latest campaign. Photo courtesy of American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.
Eugenics is the practice where discredited ideas are used to promote the notion that a particular human population is superior to other populations based on genetics. A popular example of this phenomenon goes back to the 1930s when German chancellor, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party promoted the belief that Germany should be made up of people with blonde hair and blue eyes, an “Aryan race.”
Hitler developed this idea due to his fixation on individuals who were blonde-haired and blue-eyed, since he believed their physical appearance represented racial purity and superiority to him while orchestrating the persecution of ethnic groups he considered inferior. For example, Jewish people, Roma, the disabled, Black people, Slavic people, and others were also targeted.
After the backlash towards the campaign, another jeans ad campaign created by its rival, GAP called “Better in Denim” surfaced during August 19th on GAP’s official Instagram page. Directed by filmmaker Bethany Vargas, it featured the multicultural K-pop group KATSEYE (formed in 2023) leading a group of dancers in a high-energy routine, against a minimalist white backdrop to singer Kelis’ 2003 popular hit “Milkshake” going viral.
The campaign featuring the music group served as an upbeat counter-response to American Eagle, with GAP’s chief marketing officer, Fabiola Torres reporting to Newsweek that the campaign was created with the intentions of amplifying culturally relevant voices through denim, adding that KATSEYE being at the center of high-energy celebration and self-expression is something that positively appeals to many youth of today.
Katseye appears in Gap’s “Better in Denim” commercial. Photo courtesy of Gap.
On the other hand, the American Eagle jeans campaign had the opposite effect with many younger and older audiences. In one video clip shared by American Eagle on Instagram, Sweeney who has blonde hair and blue eyes stands in front of a poster of herself with a caption that says, “Sydney Sweeney has great genes.” In this video, the word “genes” gets crossed out and is replaced with the word “jeans.”
Another video from the campaign starts off with the camera slowly panning towards Sweeney as she zips her jeans. When the camera moves, viewers can see her in an open denim jacket, revealing parts of her chest and stomach. As the ad continues, Sweeney utters the now infamous monologue about genetics being passed down through generations.
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color and personality and even eye color. My genes are blue.” As a result, many users criticized American Eagle for promoting racial superiority tropes with some viewers on social media platforms like X, commenting that getting a blonde-haired and blue-eyed woman of European descent, and focusing their campaign around her having perfect genetics was odd but deliberate considering the political climate of the United States where the Trump administration has been documented as attempting to erase diversity, equity and inclusion completely, playing a part in further excluding and isolating people of color. Something many commentators felt the American Eagle ad featuring Sydney Sweeney did by promoting the superiority of her genetics.
In response to the condemnation, American Eagle issued a public statement through Instagram saying that the ad campaign was “always about the jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.” However, their response did not mention how they may have promoted racial and cultural insensitivity through how they used Sweeney to advertise their products.
Along with calling out the ad for its push of eugenics, other users on several social media platforms pointed out some of the parallels it had with ad campaigns of the past. For instance, in 1980, fashion model and actress Brooke Shields, then a teenager, was featured in a Calvin Klein campaign where she was depicted lying on the floor, struggling to put on her jeans while speaking about genetics and evolution, using the tagline, “Calvins, the survival of the fittest.” Both ad campaigns have been compared with each other due to receiving swift backlash for their provocative natures.
A reaction that the GAP “Better in Denim” campaign starring KATSEYE seemed essentially unscathed from due to the racial diversity of the six group members shown in the ad. Member Sophia Laforteza is from the Philippines, Yoonchae was born in Korea and Manon Bannerman who was born in Switzerland is of Ghanaian, Swiss and Italian ancestry.
The three American members of the group are: Daniela Avanzini who is of Venezuelan and Cuban descent, Lara Raj who is of Indian descent and Megan who is of Chinese Singaporean descent. The six women from distinct backgrounds performing together and promoting jeans received immense approval from many viewers on social media, with most agreeing that the GAP “Better in Denim” was the correct way to do a jean commercial as opposed to the American Eagle campaign.
Like most of the commentators on social media, many students at York College felt similar negative feelings toward the American Eagle campaign expressing that major retailers promoting exclusionary rhetoric is unacceptable. “Advertisers should cater to what the consumers want to see instead of pushing something like this,” said Muhammad Ibrahim, a Pharmaceutical Science major.
Other students focused more on how KATSEYE’s GAP campaign made them feel more represented as women of color compared to the American Eagle ad they felt only prioritized one demographic. “I feel as if the brand (American Eagle) was pushing the motto that if you’re not a skinny blonde-haired blue-eyed girl, fitting into their jeans seems nearly impossible,” said Savanah Seegobin, reflecting on the difference between the two ads. “Seeing KATSEYE’s ad with GAP, and the diversity in cultures and race, makes me and maybe others feel that we’re all beautiful in what we wear, and you don’t need to be different to fit into clothing.”
There were also students who went into detail about why it’s important for people to see major fashion advertisements that feature body-type, cultural and racial diversity compared to those that push eugenics. “If people are only told that this one type of person is ideal and beautiful, they’re going to start believing it. And it’s going to open a can of worms on how beauty standards are fat-phobic, racist, sexist and ableist which is the opposite of what we want. Being exposed to different body types and cultural and racial diversity is a thing I feel everyone has to go through in order to be more open minded,” said Alexis Mohammad, an English major.
However, not everybody at York shares the same sentiment against the American Eagle campaign featuring Sweeney or considers the GAP campaign with KATSEYE as offering a positive alternative, implying that many (especially young people) were overreacting to the American Eagle campaign’s innocent strategy chosen to market the jeans, something more retailers should take heed of.
“I believe that advertisers should be aware of this extremely sensitive generation so that whenever they choose to brainstorm campaigns and implement word play in their ads, it should be clear from confusion/harm for their audience,” says Martina Rose, a biology major.
