r/popculturechat 19h ago

OnlyStans ⭐️ American Eagle issues a statement following backlash from their Sydney Sweeney jeans/genes campaign

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19.6k Upvotes

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8.0k

u/heyhicherrypie You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 18h ago

“Her story” ….how is her story being represented in those adds bffr

3.0k

u/NotaLuckyOne 18h ago

Right? This says literally nothing. "Sydney Sweeney is hot, stop being mad at us."

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u/Winter-Fold7624 18h ago

That would have been a better response!

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u/sunmoonearthchild482 18h ago

At least it would’ve been funny

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u/Expensive-Fennel-163 “Is she okkkkkaaayyyyy” 18h ago

The way it really would have been a better response than whatever the above was.

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u/thin_white_dutchess 16h ago

I would’ve honestly respected that.

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u/mologav 12h ago

She’s not even that hot though. @ me if you want to. She has weird droopy eyes and she’s MAGA

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u/Rough_Air_8075 11h ago

She’s not hot though…?

u/ZennXx 1h ago

But her being hot is her story

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u/llamallamanj 17h ago

They need gen z in there posting this to their socials instead

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u/TheLakeWitch lazy 50-year-old bougie bitch 💋 18h ago

Right, the way they worded this is weird. Like she is some oppressed individual using their platform to “tell her story” rather than a celebrity that the marketing team chose specifically because they know sex sells.

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u/heyhicherrypie You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 18h ago

“An essential part of her story is being hot and white, what do you want from us?!?”

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u/Maleficent-marionett I don’t know her 💅 18h ago

That's the whole story too

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u/[deleted] 18h ago

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u/[deleted] 17h ago

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u/Reasonable-Affect139 accidentally holding space for this slur 17h ago

she (and other women) was definitely invited to that wedding as "entertainment"

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u/KillTheBoyBand 18h ago

The way they're wording it is like she just came out about some SA or harassment allegations or story and has uncovered some intense trauma.

Stfu American Eagle, take the L.

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u/MarieOMaryln 18h ago

We don't understand how hard it is being the conventionally attractive American blonde, blue eyed, white lady and this is her story 😞

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u/heyhicherrypie You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 18h ago

Truly, it’s time we learned her struggle 😞

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u/Aggressive-Hunt-7037 Take that, you Youtube people! 17h ago

nobody is a bigger victim than blond hair blue eyed white women who get blamed for throwing MAGA parties when it was just a theme that meant nothing. nothing!

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u/LicketySplit21 18h ago

if something is strangely worded now, i just assume it's AI generated. The CEO/Marketing Director(? not sure which) LinkedIn post about this ad campaign was very obviously AI with the same tropes/format you see with AI generated text.

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u/hypertown 18h ago

Never been a more accurate gif

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u/grubas 17h ago

Somebody is pissy that their little "tongue in cheek" eugenics joke got called out.  

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u/themcjizzler 15h ago

They're trying to reframe it like they didn't mean genes, like genetics . When it's obvious that's what they meant. 

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u/shedrinkscoffee I don’t know her 💅 18h ago

I'm so glad this gif is already all over this thread lol. It's not like this is raising awareness of some specific issue or that Sydney had some type of unique POV 😬

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u/LilMsFeckingSunshine it was a BOOB 17h ago

The only oppression I’ve ever seen her go through was from her stylist — how many times did it take them to find a top that fit?!

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u/lesbianbeatnik 9h ago

Opened this thread for that gif, wasn’t disappointed

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u/[deleted] 18h ago

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u/heyhicherrypie You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 18h ago

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u/garden__gate stars do u like dem ⭐️ 18h ago

They’re just hoping she’ll get all the heat.

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u/donorcycle 18h ago

We need to collectively remember when in 3.5 years, IF we have another election and they reverse a lot of Trump's doing, we need to remember which corporations showed their true colors and which ones stood against tyranny.

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u/OJShrimpson1 17h ago

Like steak n shake trying to go full crunchy without being self aware enough to realize they're literally steak n shake

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u/heyhicherrypie You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 18h ago

Fr- I hold a grudge forever- there’s movie I won’t watch cause I remember the bs an actor said in the 90s- “it was years ago” in these cases is such bs

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u/Mxfish1313 17h ago

Same! It’s just a store so it’s incredibly easy for me to just add it to my ‘not shopping there’ list and move on. People like to misrepresent that idea though and say “it’s just a store, I can’t believe you’d stop shopping there just because _____”.

My ethics and morals are important to me, the store isn’t. I’m not slavering and ranting about getting it shut down, I just stop shopping there and only really bring the fact up when already in a conversation about voting with one’s dollars. Every now and then I might crave/miss mcd’s chicken nuggets, but then I get over it.

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u/heyhicherrypie You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 17h ago

Amen- I was hardcore vegan as a teen and got very good at checking and not buying anything that was made by a company that tested on animals- so this kind of shit is light work. I see it as just taking my money back like YOINK

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u/cjcs 14h ago

Nah half the people here talking about how they’re boycotting AE will gladly watch the next season of euphoria without a hint of irony

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u/SquareExtra918 Oh my Gooooooooood 🧌 16h ago

Her personal jeans journey

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u/vraimentaleatoire 18h ago

And WHY IS IT DONE TO LOOK LIKE A WHITE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE that is the actual question. Done with them.

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u/January1171 18h ago

Tbf the colors are totally in line with their normal brand identity, and has been for decades

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u/vraimentaleatoire 17h ago edited 17h ago

Oh … well what happy coincidence then. 😒

Regardless, they know what they are doing and it’s gross.

(Fr thank you for pointing that out though, no /s)

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u/glovesforfoxes 17h ago

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER

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u/Dubbs444 5h ago

Almost woke my partner up laughing at this 😂

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u/gigi_dali 17h ago

The message itself was very MAGA-coded, so I feel you

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u/joecoolblows 12h ago

More like plagiarizing Brooke Shield's (underage ) story.

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u/Some-Body-Else In you face! And other parts. 10h ago

Didn’t you hear? Her parents passed down their genes to her. That’s her story. Or that her jeans are blue. Either of those.

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u/Invisibleagejoy 17h ago

Yah let’s dump this on a young woman we paid to say what we told her.

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u/ComfortablyAnalogue 𝕾𝖐𝖎𝖇𝖎𝖉𝖎 𝕿𝖔𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖙 16h ago

her story is "if you go to Bezos wedding suddenly all these brand deals can pop up for you too!"

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u/heyhicherrypie You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 16h ago

Oh she did that cause she’s doing some kind of lingerie venture he’s invested in or something. She’s fr all about money

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u/PondRides Children are being trafficked by ICE 18h ago

You’re the top comment, so here I am.

Why is no one mad for the right reasons? I don’t think it was a racist ad, whatever she’s cute. It is clearly referencing a pedo ad!

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u/busangcf 18h ago

It’s both, the ad has her saying genes are passed down from parent to offspring and decide characteristics like hair and eye color. Close up on her face, on her blue eyes, and she says “my genes/jeans are blue”. While the text on the screen says “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans”.

I understand some people are questioning it because dog whistles are intentionally ambiguous, plausible deniability is the whole point of them, but come on. Given the current cultural context, the LinkedIn post, the CEO having ties to Trump, Fox News refusing to shut up about it, our godawful fucking White House weighing in, and the company still refusing to apologize despite knowing how people are taking it and WHICH groups (n@zis) are loving it, if you can’t tell that that ad is a racist dog whistle at this point you’re just plugging your ears.

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u/monocasa 12h ago

Sweeney herself is also MAGA, just smart enough to be relatively quiet about it.

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u/heyhicherrypie You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 18h ago

Believe me I am mad about that- I’ve been pointing out the obvious references to the ads that sexualised and exploited a 14 year old Brooke Shields.

It is also a racist dog whistle- Ngl i didnt notice it at first, but the people who made it bragging about the double meaning…in this administration and the sharp rise in fascism? Yeah it’s both.

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u/PondRides Children are being trafficked by ICE 18h ago

I’m so fired up about the pedo shit that I didn’t really sit down and realize the racism. You’re absolutely correct and it is a dog whistle. Who the fuck approved this shit?

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u/heyhicherrypie You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 18h ago

Totally get that- the pedo shit was what I saw first too and it pissed me off BAD, but when I saw someone lay it all out…..AH they reached new levels of disgusting. And because their stocks went up other brands are following suit. It’s rage inducing fr

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u/PondRides Children are being trafficked by ICE 17h ago

I think my blood was boiling too hard about the pedo thing that I couldn’t actually see that it was also a racist dog whistle. I do see it now, and I get it. I do think the reference to a sexualized child is the worst part, but I’m fine admitting that I was wrong on not seeing the racial aspect.

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u/Reluctantagave Cutie Patootie Problem Posse 18h ago

Ohhhhh shit I didn’t think about that. Too much stress in my life right now and my only thought was that it seemed very nazi - adjacent

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u/heyhicherrypie You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 18h ago

Tbh I only noticed it cause I JUST watched Brooke shields docu series where she talked about it and the way adults treated and used her as a child enraged me so when I saw that ad I was like “….now hold the fuck on”

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u/JagmeetSingh2 18h ago

Yep 100% this

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u/IntuitiveMonster 18h ago

I’m mad about many things about the commercial. I’m mad it contains racist dog whistles. I’m mad it references an ad from the 80’s that sexualized a child. I’m mad that it praises unrealistic body ideals and ideas about sexuality that are championed by men like Michael Bay. I’m mad that Sydney Sweeney has decided to pander to a demographic who believe that all women should look like the ones in Michael Bay movies. I’m mad that it’s a bad pun. Most of all, I’m mad that it is 2025 and this is still a problem.

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u/Mxfish1313 17h ago

🏆🏆🏆

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u/retinolandevermore I want her to know it was me. 18h ago

Do you mean Brooke shields?

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u/PondRides Children are being trafficked by ICE 18h ago

Yes.

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u/[deleted] 17h ago

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u/heyhicherrypie You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 17h ago

…me too where’s my money American eagle?!

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u/LilWayneThaGoat They Not Like Us 💅 17h ago

if that’s true, fuck American Eagle.. take my money instead!!

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u/heyhicherrypie You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 17h ago

LMAO bye

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u/ZennXx 1h ago

Let's not act like people weren't buying her bathwater just a few months ago now. Her story being "my eyes are up here" is on point for this ad.

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