Just want to confirm that no one here is offended by sydney sweeneys jeans ad, right?

[dsp3000]

I swear the "outrage" is manufactured and astroturfed by the right wing echo chamber. I saw the ad not seeing any of the articles or outrage by it and thought it was a typical, good ad for jeans. Yes I think she's attractive and it's a good ad for clothing . That's it.

So please confirm my thoughts here that no one seriously thinks sydney Sweeney or American eagle is advocating for eugenics

[SickOfTheOnePct]

1. Just a second while I grab my popcorn... n/t

[Kingofalldems]

3. Nope, not gonna work.

[iemanja]

2. Not in the slightest

and I've never heard anyone on the left complain about it.

[NewHendoLib]

4. No idea about any of this. Who? What?

So glad we don't watch TV

[Justice Brandeis]

5. Not at all.

No person of any significance or noteworthiness is offended. It's just a few yahoos on Twitter with 62 followers each.

The backlash is far bigger than the actual number of real people who are upset.

[MuseRider]

6. Need a link or an explanation.

Been busy and have not a single clue as to what this is about. I have seen nothing about this anywhere. I will look around myself, sorry I am not to lazy to do that!

[Hekate]

7. Oh gods what did I miss now?

The last female jeans ad I saw that outraged the public was one with no underpants, the zipper down about an inch and a half. Oh yes, and the one with the model spreading her legs for a good crotch shot presumably to show those tight jeans could take the stress.

It’s been awhile. Do I even want to know what’s going on now?

[Pacifist Patriot]

13. Nope. It's too stupid for words.

[Hekate]

22. Thx for sparing me

I already had my Moment of Stupidity for the day over the “conscience clause” being extended to cover doctors who object to treating unmarried pregnant women.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220531874

[Pacifist Patriot]

46. That one transcends stupidity.

[Ms. Toad]

52. Too stupid to recognize the potential for misreading -

Or a deliberate attempt to appeal to those who think whites are superior.

Not sure which is worse.

Stereotypical skinny white blondish model, with the declaration that "Sidney Sweet has good jeans"

Say it out loud if it doesn't jump out at you.

[anciano]

8. Not offended at all....

it's just a clothing commercial.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. Not offended or outraged, but it's okay to acknowledge that the concept of "good genes" is literally eugenics.

Promoting white supremacist theories is generally seen as bad, hope that helps.

[harumph]

21. My daughter has an 95 yo friend who is sharp as a tack and healthy.

My daughter commented that her friend must have good genes. In no way was my daughter referencing eugenics.
To say that one has good genes is different than saying - "...hey let's start a breeding program." Some people are born with
genetic defects that will kill them before 18. So is it better to say of people lacking such defects that they have "adequate" genes?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

28. Eugenics literally means "good genes"

[harumph]

61. That is literally incorrect.

"Eugenics" (a made up term from 1883 coming from the Greek "eugenes," meaning "well-born" or "of good stock" ) refers to the pseudo-science of "race improvement" rather than the actual underlying mechanisms of heredity (the genetic code) of which next to nothing was understood in the 19th century. To conflate one word with the other is to imply a wrong-headed ideology is equivalent to the actual mechanics of biology that starting in the mid-20th, we have only begun to understand. Again, to say a peppy 95 year old has "good genes" does not reference "eugenics."

[yardwork]

74. Sure, but there's a context in current events.

When you have the U.S. government running around talking about immigrants "poisoning the blood" of "real Americans" it's not unreasonable to notice the wording of this ad.

Marketing always makes use of double and triple meanings.

[mucholderthandirt]

75. When I say I have "good genes", I mean things like thick hair, longer life span.

I look white, and am listed as white, but I'm a mixed bag of a bunch of stuff, including Native American on both sides, and some AA blood recent enough to show as 2% on my sister's DNA test she sent in. And I don't care. I always put "human" when it says race on any form.

A "bad" gene I have is early onset arthritis, and a tendency on both sides for alcoholism/addiction. Yay, me.

[Ritabert]

10. I went and found it. It wasn't particularly annoying

....aside from the "blue genes"/ "blue jeans" comment.

[Ms. Toad]

67. It's good jeans, not blue jeans.

Blue jeans is innocuous. Good jeans/good genes is kind of the point (either that or really stupid marketing person/people who didn't catch the eugenics reference)

[Initech]

11. I honestly do not give a shit about any ads whatsoever.

And yeah the outrage is entirely manufactured by Fox and other bullshit sources.

[iemanja]

25. They've run extensive coverage of it to distract from the Epstein controversy

So I've read.

[Initech]

56. Yup, don't give a shit.

The only thing I care about is that Trump is a child rapist and sex trafficker who should be spending the rest of his worthless life in prison.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

58. THIS right here!! Anything that distracts from the sex crimes of the Pedo-in-Chief is not worth our time.

[Noodleboy13]

12. I remember when the jeans ad kerfluffle was Brooke Shields. Calvin Klein?

Granted, she was only 15 at the time. But poor Brooke was exploited early on, even before Blue Lagoon.

Peace,
Noodleboy

[John1956PA]

15. Good recollection. I think the length of her legs . . .

. . . in the image was increased by some form of pre-digital photo editing.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

14. Not offended

It's just another attempt to use an attractive woman and a play on words to sell a product.

[GopherGal]

16. Well, do I think USA Gymnastics should be looking into it.

The amount of stretching required to make the blue jeans/blue genes pun, followed by the further mental gymnastics to generate right-wing outrage over a non-existent leftwing outrage over some nonexistent eugenics interpretation probably should be harnessed for at least a couple medals in LA 2028.

[Renew Deal]

17. I haven't seen anyone on the left including DU talk about the ad itself.

Just the made up RW controversy about it.

[hlthe2b]

18. I don't care one way or the other but perhaps you should start out with who the hell is Sydney Sweeney AND

why should we care? I assume she is in some movie or tv show I likewise don't give a shit about. But, I will be happy to learn why I don't give a shit about her (albeit my opinion is unlikely to change).

[Skittles]

19. yup

I am always amused by what passes as "celebrities" these days.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

54. She's on the HBO series Euphoria

Which I've never watched.

Rumor has it she may star in a remake of Barbarella. I saw the original and thought it was rather silly.

[hlthe2b]

55. Okay... thanks for the info... I've never seen it either (and likewise, Barbarella should stay in Jane Fonda's

credits only, IMO).

[Celerity]

73. Euphoria is superb. Zendaya is the biggest star.

Sydney Sweeney was in Everything Sucks!, The Handmaid's Tale, Sharp Objects, and The White Lotus besides Euphoria.

[hunter]

81. That sounds very unpleasant.

Euphoria follows high schoolers in the fictional town of East Highland, California, who seek hope while balancing the strains of love, loss, sex, and addiction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphoria_%28American_TV_series%29

There's no way in hell I'd ever want to revisit my life as a teenager and young twenty-something. It's still a wellspring of nightmares half a century past.

Doesn't matter, I guess. I've never subscribed to HBO and probably never will.

[BannonsLiver]

82. The show is objectively terrible and depressing

There’s not a single character anyone would want to root for. But it does provide a window into our broken, “dead inside” youth culture.

[malaise]

84. Double meaning re genetics - even racist

[mcar]

20. No idea what you are posting about. nt

[Brainfodder]

23. Might be mocking racism and hurt the snowflake drama queens feelings a bit?

Or is it a RAINBOW LGBTQ+ pick your color of the rainbow thing, regardless, a nothing burger to just have something to complain about?

Sydney is a current IT girl in 2025, they seem to like to attack the top, to elevate themselves or the narrative of the moment?

[uponit7771]

24. Who?

[flvegan]

26. When they find out she's a republican

that "outrage" will end I'm sure.

She stopped being any sort of attractive to me because of it.

[Mike Nelson]

27. I think it's...

... a distraction story from the Trumpsters. I thought "good genes" meant attractive like parents or grandparents - at least, that's how I've seen it used on social media. I don't think only "white" people say it... and I wasn't even sure the young woman in the ad was strictly blonde (natural), blue-eyed, and 100% Caucasian, either. Distraction, imo.

[Scrivener7]

29. Huh?

[Polly Hennessey]

30. Well, I can't comment because I don't know who Sydney Sweeney is.

That’s me, clueless.🤷‍♀️

[SocialDemocrat61]

43. Here's a SNL she was in

[flying rabbit]

31. Do you have a link to the ad?

Not analysis of it, but an actual link to the ad you are talking about. Thanks

[MorbidButterflyTat]

32. There was a previous thread on here about this

Where posters who said they didn't know who Sydney Sweeney was were shamed as "bragging" about being "ignorant."

Fun times.

[rurallib]

33. I am guessing some phony outrage has been whipped up about something which

thusly gets some body or something lots of clicks causing some thing or somebody to be the latest internet phenom.

So here's to Sid Sweeney and his sweaty jeans. Ya figured out the system.

[Wifes husband]

34. All I know

Is that is a mighty fine looking woman. She can wear whatever she wants around me

[Xavier Breath]

70. I'm not in an way religious, but 'Amen.'

[LymphocyteLover]

35. Not outraged but it is kind of gross under this Nazi regime

[hay rick]

36. Every time I see one of those dumb-ass red hats I think of eugenics.

[Mossfern]

72. Agree

Red hats shouldn't breed.

[AllaN01Bear]

37. huh?

[Raftergirl]

38. I have no idea who she even is and have never seen the ad, because I either stream shows or record them and

fast forward through commercials.

I did see from headlines there was some brouhaha over it but was t interested enough to bother reading any article.

[SocialDemocrat61]

42. She's an actress

Here’s a SNL sketch she was in.

[edbermac]

39. Distraction by RWers posing as lefties.

For example, I give you white male Joey Mannarino who got busted for trying to pose as a black woman to criticize Kamala.

Link to tweet

[angrychair]

40. Are you kidding

I assume your kidding it's a fascist right wing eugenics ad for race purity.

[SocialDemocrat61]

41. Not personally offended

but think it was very tone deaf on the part of the company and their advertising agency. However, I do know some who are offended and understand their reasons.
What I find worrying is the history from Nazi Germany. When the Nazis took over the country they started to infuse their ideology into all communications, into newspapers, radio programs (news and entertainment, movies and advertising in both overt and subtly. Is that what’s happening here? I don’t know. It could just be an innocent mistake.

[Collimator]

44. Someone here at DU posted Desi Lydic's take on the thing. . .

. . . And it was hilarious. You are right, of course, most liberal-leaning people are not getting their jeans in a twist over it, but the Right claims that they are and are using it as further "proof" of how crazy and oversensitive we are. Bill Maher has a Youtube entry (which I did NOT click) about how "the Woke Mob" is all riled up.

If there were a Woke Mob out there Bill, you would have been hit in the face by a vegan banana cream pie long ago.

Highly recommend Desi's discussion of the Right's "righteous" defense of Sidney Sweeney. Megyn Kelly thinks that it's great that there's a woman out there with a "kick ass body" owning the libs, but in June of this year she spoke disparagingly of Sweeney and her large breasts.

[Iggo]

60. They think they've found their Pure White Princess.

They were so mad when they got turned down by Taylor Swift.

(They = White Supremacists.)

[SocialDemocrat61]

64. Here's the Desi Lydic video

[Iggo]

45. Not as much as I am by Trump sexually assaulting minors.

But that’s just me.

[irisblue]

47. I googled her. Looks like the Brook Shields Calvin Kelin ad in 1980& 81

Using women's bodies to sell items

[Ms. Toad]

53. The problem is using a white model accompanied by the words "good jeans"

If it doesn't hit you, day it out loud.

I can't imagine it was accidental.

[Dave Bowman]

48. That's a stupid ad but yes, it's about eugenics.

[walkingman]

49. Made up BS - no one cares and never did. These folks are just trying to create false outrage.

[applegrove]

50. It has been a thing for a while in advertising that even

Last edited Sat Aug 2, 2025, 08:32 PM - Edit history (1)

negative emotions will place the product's name in mind. So racists will like it and non racists will remember the name too. Hell, the whole point was controversy.

[In It to Win It]

51. I couldn't care less.

[Happy Hoosier]

57. No one I know is offended by this

I’m only hearing from right wing nuts that “the left” is offended.

[Ping Tung]

59. It's about as concering as the price of used spit at sea level.

[krawhitham]

62. This could rename the streisand effect

[sakabatou]

63. Who?

I don't know what this is referring to.

[Bluesaph]

65. Astro turf. Ignore it. Best let the right argue alone.

[rollin74]

66. Not offended at all

seems like a stupid made up "controversy" that's only going to help American Eagle sell more jeans

[JI7]

68. There are a few social media career types

that make a living out of it. But I don't think it's real outrage but they make a living doing this stuff.

But mostly I see right wingers claim liberals are outraged. They have been doing this a lot.

[Wiz Imp]

69. An interesting view of why the ad is problematic

&t=300s

White Supremacists are celebrating the ad and making videos saying they are winning. They view this as corporations being on the side of white supremacy. Even if you're not personally offended by the ad (and I'm not), the reaction of the white nationalists to it should bother you.

[Celerity]

71. The RW's not outraged at the advert. The RW's mocking outrage from the left (outrage I find foolish) in re the advert

[Iris]

76. I'm not offended just aware that ads reflect our culture and also enforce hegemony

There's no doubt that ads can be subversive and there's no harm in critiquing them as such.

[underpants]

77. No. They took a couple of people's takes on Tik Tok and made it into their own thing.

[Vinca]

78. I must be really out of it. I haven't even taken the time to find out who Sydney Sweeney is. LOL.

[Oneironaut]

79. I've seen the ad. I'm "offended" by how weird and off-putting it is.

I don't get the controversy, tbh. It seems manufactured. However, the ad itself is really strange and cringeworthy.

The tagline "Sydney Sweeney has good Jeans!" is extremely weird. Who in the world thought it was a good idea? The whole ad is super uncomfortable for that reason and for other reasons I can't really put my finger on. It seems forced and awkward.

[Stargleamer]

80. Counterpoint

American Eagle is out here pushing eugenics to sell “genes” to their target demo.

Abercrombie saw that crap, slid in on IG, and clapped back hard—and I’m here for it.

They basically said: nah, we’re not doing that. Every body is beautiful. Every body gets jeans.
🧵

— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) 2025-08-03T00:00:37.265Z

[sarisataka]

83. I would have to see it before we could answer the question

And I haven't cared enough to look it up

[EX500rider]

85. Judging by the earlier thread here it does appear some are offended by it IMO

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220518405

[RandomNumbers]

86. It's an ugly ad, IMO. But then I'm old, and don't find her "beautiful" in the slightest.

I had to find the ad in this news story -

https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/what-s-next-for-american-eagle-after-great-jeans-campaign-sparks-backlash-244072005787

Yeah, that ad wouldn't make me run out and buy those jeans, that's for sure. But clearly I'm not the company's target demographic.

I concur with the broader question of why clothing ads are suddenly referencing genetics. Not a good sign. I mean, if I thought a higher proportion of this country actually had a fucking CLUE about genetics, and its complexities ... I dunno, if they did these companies probably wouldn't be making such stupid ads.

I am mostly "offended" in the same sense as I am "offended" by a lot of ads - I find them highly annoying and catering to people of apparent "tastes" or predilections that make me cringe. But hey, a shitload of people in this country voted for Trump, so in the universe of things that are annoying or worse, this is barely plankton.

[misanthrope]

87. Same boat, I find most ads to be obnoxious

And I have yet to hear anyone talk about this blue jeans ad other than right wingers claiming it has the left side of the aisle aflutter in outrage. I think this is all created by the right for lack of anything more substantive.

Sydney Sweeney's appeal escapes me. The only thing I saw her in was the first season of "The White Lotus" and she struck me as a competent enough actor but any aesthetic attractiveness just wasn't there. From what I have gathered, most American men are so awestruck by her large breasts that they see little else. If we're talking about sheer physical beauty, Sweeney is a pale comparison to actors like Jennifer Connelly, Kerry Washington or Michelle Pfeiffer and none of them are known for their bust size.

Being really shallow -- we're talking about cinema, after all -- Sweeney's dead-eyed physical presentation seems ideal for typecasting as what others call "trailer trash." She just has a skeevy look about her.

[Melon]

88. Not bothered in the least bit by it...I'm shocked it's in the news.

[Beartracks]

89. This reply to the ad on YouTube: "Let's not get mad about this. Let's get mad at THE LACK OF THE EPSTEIN FILES"

===========