American Eagle Outfitters responded to the reaction about his recent ads with actress Sydney Sweeney, saying that his campaign “is and always was the jeans.”
The retailer generated widespread scrutiny this week after launching his autumn campaign centered on the denim that presented Sweeney. The motto said: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”
Many accused Eagle American of Eugenics online, “white supremacy” and “Nazi propaganda” with the campaign, which implies that the company was also promoting the genes of a white and blonde woman with her game.
“Genes are transmitted from parents to the offspring, often determining features such as hair color, personality and even the color of the eyes,” says Sweeney in one of the video clips, before the camera accelerates to its blue eyes. “My jeans are blue.”
But American Eagle rejected that notion on Friday in his statement published on social networks.
“His jeans. His story,” said the publication. “We will continue to celebrate how everyone uses their jeans with confidence, in their own way. Great jeans look good in all.”
Sweeney’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comments on the new brand statement.
Sweeney has not publicly commented on the reaction of the campaign.
The celebrity, who jumped to fame thanks to the papers starring “The White Lotus” and “Euphoria”, appeared in more than a dozen publications on Instagram by American Eagle before the company changed the outstanding model.
Some commentators, who pointed out that the new model seemed not to be white, rushed to call the new publication of the company “Damage Control”.
