Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle campaign sparks backlash over “great jeans” slogan
Sydney Sweeney’s new American Eagle fall 2025 campaign is facing backlash over its “great jeans” slogan, with critics calling it a tone-deaf nod to eugenics-era beauty standards while the viral outrage sends AEO stock soaring 16%.
Clothing brand American Eagle has stirred controversy by featuring actress Sydney Sweeney in its fall 2025 campaign, claiming that she has “great genes,” with the actress herself painting “jeans” over the pun in one of the social media posts.
Sweeney’s casting fits a long trend of brands using white, blonde actresses as aspirational beauty standards.
The online criticism was rife across social media, with users interpreting “great genes” as evoking eugenics-era language that linked “good genetics” to white, thin, able-bodied beauty.
What followed was a tirade of comments likening it to Holocaust propaganda and calling it a “Nazi dog whistle.”
And, as is typical of modern meme culture, a counterblast to the “woke” reaction ensued, with one X user sarcastically posting: “Hot women in commercials is literally the Holocaust.”
Hot women in commercials is literally the Holocaust. pic.twitter.com/arrQSfUbeW
undefined The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) July 26, 2025
Another poster on Threads said, “Nothing says unhinged liberal racism like calling a company “white supremacist” and “Nazi” over a pun,” before exaggerating a list of good causes that American Eagle has supported.
The company has supported Pride and mental health campaigns, as well as other causes, though the figures in the Threads could not be verified.
Digging deeper into the semantics, user @holy.contradiction pointed out on Threads that “almost every outrage post I saw… was by white people,” asking, “where are the brown or Black Americans in this conversation?”
Despite the criticism, the campaign caused AEO stock to spike by up to 16% in a meme stock–like surge.
Analysts pointed to Reddit and Stocktwits retail investor chatter driving the bump, similar to GameStop and AMC.
The online outrage appears to have doubled as free advertising, fueling visibility.
