"Already trying to walk back their campaign" - Internet divided by American Eagle's response to Sydney Sweeney's "jeans" controversy

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Lionsgate's 2025 CinemaCon - Arrivals (Image via Getty)

More than a week after American Eagle dropped the Sydney Sweeney ad campaign (on July 23, 2025), the apparel company has responded to the controversies surrounding it.

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Taking to its Instagram handle to share a statement on Friday, August 1, American Eagle wrote:

"'Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans' is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We'll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone."
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The statement has since gone viral on the internet. A screenshot of it was posted on X by The Hollywood Reporter on August 2 and has since received 1.6 million views and 3.3K likes. Reacting to the same, one user tweeted:

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Some netizens praised American Eagle for their "explanatory but unapologetic" response surrounding the ad controversy.

"This is actually a perfect response. Dismissive of the manufactured controversy. Inclusive without pandering or virtue signaling. Explanatory but unapologetic. Short and sweet. Nailed it," commented an X user.
"I don't understand why they feel the need to apologize, it was a play on words," added another.
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"Sounds like they're standing by the campaign—curious to see how this plays out with the public," posted a third netizen.

Meanwhile, others seemed dissatisfied with the statement, pointing out that the ad was clearly a wordplay on genes.

"It was obviously meant to have a double meaning - jeans/genes," replied a fourth netizen.
"I don't think trying to gas lite and control the narrative will play out but lets see," wrote a fifth one.
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"They could easily have ended this by just have people of different ethnicities saying the same thing, in different ads," pointed out a sixth user.

A White House representative addressed the American Eagle ad campaign in a tweet

Steven Cheung's tweet in response to MSNBC's article on Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad (Image via X/@StevenCheung47)
Steven Cheung's tweet in response to MSNBC's article on Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad (Image via X/@StevenCheung47)

American Eagle's response to the backlash Sydney Sweeney's ad campaign faces comes in the wake of White House representative Cheung addressing it.

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Earlier this week, on July 30, Steven Cheung, the communications manager at the White House, shared a screenshot of an MSNBC News article in his tweet. The headline of the article read:

"Sydney Sweeney's ad shows an unbridled cultural shift toward whiteness."

In the caption of his tweet, Cheung claimed that it was "this warped, moronic, and dense liberal thinking" that played a key role in influencing American voters to vote "the way they did in 2024."

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Besides Cheung, popular media figures like Megyn Kelly also criticized those who reportedly accused the new American Eagle ad of racism. Kelly said:

"They think it’s no accident that they’ve chosen a white, thin woman because you’re, I guess, not allowed to celebrate those things in any way, shape, or form. But they’re completely ignoring the reference to her body, which is the thing she’s famous for. It’s just absurd."
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In the ad commercial, Sweeney talks about "genes" being passed down from parents to offspring, ultimately concluding with, "My jeans are blue."

Edited by Somava
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