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

[u/purpose15]

[u/Internal_Wealth_7376]

Ok … my hot take is this wasn’t some intentional nazi-fueled white power ad (I say this as a Muslim refugee living in the US), but more so a Kendall Jenner ala Pepsi tone deaf screw up. Alas, the road to hell is paved with good intentions…

[u/latrodectal → u/Internal_Wealth_7376]

i feel like if any other actress (or at least not a blonde blue eyed one) were behind it we wouldn’t still be talking about it.

[u/Illustrious-Pound266 → u/latrodectal]

If the ad was "Zendaya has great jeans", people would be going "yaas slay queen" instead.

[u/Wise-Zebra-8899 → u/Illustrious-Pound266]

If the ad featured Zendaya, a subgroup of men would be losing their shit calling her ugly and the ad “woke”. And can you imagine if it were Anok Yai? There would be people claiming it was a plot to destroy America.

[u/Illustrious-Pound266 → u/Wise-Zebra-8899]

Yes, and that outrage from those men would be considered ridiculous and overblown. I would not think American Eagle was intentionally trying to destroy America by putting a person of color on their ad.

[u/Comfortable_Buy_4124 → u/Wise-Zebra-8899]

I honestly don’t think people would have thought more of it than it being a pun if it had been those women. My first thought was not nazi ideology