Phony: Republicans thought the libs were getting owned.

[applegrove]

We looked back on the "backlash" against American Eagle ads featuring Sydney Sweeney and her "great jeans." Right-wing media declared that liberals were outraged and thought the ads were racist -- even the White House joined in.

If you thought that story reeked, you'll want to see what we found.

— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt.bsky.social) 2025-10-02T16:55:47.520Z

[Qutzupalotl]

1. Reminds me of the Cracker Barrel dustup...

https://gizmodo.com/cracker-barrel-outrage-was-almost-certainly-driven-by-bots-researchers-say-2000664221
…arificially created controversy.

Also the whole Dr. Seuss thing from a few years ago. “We” were supposedly outraged by a Seuss book, when it was the family who pulled it.

They love to put words in our mouths, because they get confused when we actually speak.

[Maru Kitteh]

2. But where was this "issue" as a strategy born? Who gave it life?

That’s the real question. Because the Republicans that pushed this did NOT think the liberals were upset over this, they knew better. So what did they gain?

Perception.

THIS, is what our side MUST learn to not only get, but get better at.

[applegrove]

3. They wanted the word genes to be a big meme in the brains of americans.

Last edited Fri Oct 3, 2025, 04:41 PM - Edit history (1)

[Maru Kitteh]

4. "They" is not a construct I find particularly useful in this matter.

Learning who precisely made the decision to push this across so many media platforms and more to the point was able to do it so easily . . that, I think would be useful.

[applegrove]

5. Ad firms do suss out controvercy in their ads these

days. If you pay attention to the ads on the TV they often try and put negative emotions in the TV viewers these days too. Seems manipulating negative emotions are more fertile grounds that ads that inspire happiness. It started with creepy Burger King King. It continues with Skittles ads and the like today. Seems positive emotion ads have been seen to run out of power after 70 years of TV advertising. No doubt the people who made this ad were counting on a big fuss over it. We're they MAGA? Or MAGA sympathetic? I don't know. But the added exposure of doing a controversial ad seems to be worth it. Once the ad came out MAGA seemed to want it to piss off libs more than it did. And here we are. The word genes is political.