The ad meant to sell denim ended up selling outrage
Do you have good jeans?
That’s probably not a question you get asked a lot. Nor is it a particularly controversial one.
If you engage in a little wordplay, however, and implicitly ask others if they have good genes — well, you, like the apparel company American Eagle, might find yourself at the center of a heated social media debate.
The Sydney Sweeney American Eagle jeans ad campaign, briefly
Recently the American Eagle company unveiled a new advertising campaign starring popular actor Sydney Sweeney (best known for her roles in the HBO series The White Lotus and Euphoria). Various commercials and print ads appeared in numerous media, all sharing the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”
Different ads contained different scripts, however. In one, Sweeney poses in jeans and a denim jacket and starts by saying, “I’m not here to tell you to buy American Eagle Jeans.” She continues, saying she “definitely won’t” tell you they’re the most comfortable jeans she’s ever worn, or “that they make your butt look amazing.” In the end, she saucily asks the viewer, “you see what I…