Clothing company American Eagle, amid struggling sales and a 17% stock plunge in the first quarter of 2025, opted for one of the oldest marketing strategies in an effort to push sales: controversy. Admittedly, the recent discourse started by the company’s “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” ad, which centers on genes and jeans, has been intriguing since its release on July 23. 

The ad gained attention immediately due to the use of the “genes”/”jeans” homophone that led to messaging some received as promoting eugenics.

On the surface, the videos are no different than any other denim ad with a sexual undertone — see Brooke Shields’ controversial 1980 Calvin Klein ad, where a 15-year-old Shields proclaimed, “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” However, the real issue is highlighted in the dialogue surrounding the videos.

It would be a serious mistake to ignore that white supremacist ideology is gaining validation in certain circles today. When Sweeney states in her American Eagle ad that “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue,” the brand is no longer simply selling denim. 

Instead, it is glorifying white attributes because the ad is focused on traits like hair color and eye color, which are passed down through “genes.” Sure, it can ride the plausible deniability train because “genes” and “jeans” are homophones, but this is playing with fire.

Media critic Jean Kilbourne told Medpage Today, “Ads sell more than products … To a great extent, they tell us who we are and who we should be.” Therefore, when an ad meant to sell jeans to women focuses on the traits attributed to Sweeney by her “blue” jeans, they are no longer just selling a $70 pair of jeans. The brand, instead, is recentering white genetics as the beauty standard.

In contrast with American Eagle’s ad, a recent Gap ad featuring KATSEYE members Yoonchae Jeung, Daniela Avanzini, Megan Skiendiel, Sophia Laforteza, Manon Bannerman and Lara Raj sends a different message of what beauty looks like. KATSEYE is a global girl group “coming from immensely different cultures,” as explained on its website, offering a diverse group of girls representative of what the world looks like. 

The distinction between American Eagle’s Sweeney ad and Gap’s most recent KATSEYE ad is night and day. Though the Gap ad was likely planned before the Sweeney ad rather than as a response, it could not be more timely. 

The contrasts extend into the ad’s messaging. There is no spoken word but rather features KATSEYE and an array of backup dancers dancing to Kelis’ “Milkshake.” The ad’s caption reads: “This is denim as you define it. Your individuality. Your self-expression. Your style. Powerful on your own. Even better together.” Unlike Sweeney’s ad, jeans are the accessory, not genes.

Much of the discourse around the backlash led to conservatives claiming liberals were upset over the sex appeal Sweeney presented in her American Eagle ad. Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert told Fox News that, “The Sydney Sweeney ad campaign is striking a cultural nerve because it signals a return to traditional branding strategies: sex appeal, simplicity and star power.”

What the KATSEYE ad did that Sweeney’s didn’t was deliver on all of those “traditional branding strategies” that have made a resurgence amid the rise of the alt-right movement, without the undeniably odd subliminal messaging about genes. Pun or not, when conservative voices rush to defend a brand against accusations of white supremacy glorification, it sends a troubling message about the brand’s values and about the times we are living in. 

The issue is not Sweeney being beautiful, nor is it her being white. Pop star Addison Rae was announced as Lucky Brand’s ambassador Thursday with a series of photos and videos published to their social media accounts. The difference is in the messaging, with the photos simply being captioned “WEAR LUCKY. FEEL LUCKY.” 

Rae’s Lucky Brand ad perfectly complements the KATSEYE ad as a way to juxtapose the themes in Sweeney’s ad. You can be and feel sexy in an ad just like it is perfectly fine to be white. But when you have a white woman talking about how good her genes are in an ad, that is forever your brand. 

Companies, it is so easy to make a good advertisement that is funny and sexy without subliminal messaging. Be the Gap in a world of American Eagles. Students, be conscious of what messaging the media is pushing to you. This is how we lead change.