Sydney Sweeney Responds To The American Eagle Jeans Ad Controversy
The Euphoria actor was surprised by the reaction online.
Sydney Sweeney found herself at the center of a controversy in July, when she starred in an ad about “great jeans” for American Eagle. The ad – specifically, its play on words for “genes” and “jeans — sparked a heated conversation online about eugenics. While American Eagle issued a statement in August about the incident, saying the campaign “always was about the jeans,” Sweeney stayed out of the conversation until a GQ interview, published on Nov. 4.
“I did a jean ad. I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans. All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life,” Sweeney said when asked about the online conversation.
She added that President Trump and Vice President Vance issuing statements to defend her was “surreal.” When asked if she felt “thankful” for their support, she demurred. “I don’t think…. It’s not that I didn’t have that feeling, but I wasn’t thinking of it like that, of any of it. I kind of just put my phone away,” she said. “I was filming every day. I’m filming Euphoria, so 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.”
Sweeney also clarified that she had nothing to say about the ad itself. She told GQ, “I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.”
Despite the controversy, American Eagle saw success with the campaign — something Sweeney knew in the midst of the intense conversation. “I was aware of the numbers as it was going. So when I saw all the headlines of in-store visits were down a certain percentage, none of it was true. It was all made up, but nobody could say anything because [the company was] in their quiet period,” she added. “So it was all just a lot of talk. And 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.”
American Eagle echoed this in their August statement. "'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."
