Sydney Sweeney’s… Eugenics commercial?
By Riley Duignan

On July 23, 2025, Sydney Sweeney collaborated with American Eagle in an advertisement for women’s jeans. In the ad, she puts on a seductive, sultry performance, often performed for the male gaze. It struck controversy for its insensitive topic of focus and supposed reference to a 1980 Calvin Klein commercial with 14-year-old Brooke Shields.

Sydney Sweeney’s existing hate train

Sydney Sweeney already put herself in an umbrella of hate after her soap ad for Dr. Squatch, where limited edition soap bars were sold with quantities of her actual bathwater in them. It catered to mostly male audiences, and the majority were bought by men. The ad had ultimately pushed the sexist notion of women being seen as “sex objects,” due to the objectification of Sweeney’s body through the ad and soap. Most women expressed their ultimate disgust and disappointment with the ad due to this. With some saying she’s “set Feminism back.”

What is Eugenics?

Eugenics is a race-based study that was meant to ‘breed’ and reproduce certain favorable characteristics and traits of people. It was strongly used by the Nazis to prove Jews as inferior and used by white supremacists who saw certain traits of African Americans as inferior or unfit. They would often sterilize and perform unjust medical practices to test or get rid of certain traits in African Americans. For example, intelligence tests were frequently put into practice for African Americans to show their “intelligence inferiority complex.”
Carl Brigham was the inventor of the SAT testing and a well-known eugenicist. It was used to prove the superiority of the white race’s intelligence and a higher level of education. While at the same time separating and dehumanizing African Americans and their intelligence. It was meant to show that African Americans were not only inferior but also to reject the ‘mixing’ of races socially and personally.

Many eugenicists favored the traits of the ‘Nordic race,’ which often depicted blonde or light hair, blue eyes, and pale/light skin. It pushed the idea of race superiority, ultimately labeling white as the superior race and people. But in many instances, it wasn’t about immediately changing somebody’s skin color; it was about racial hierarchy and ‘ranking.’ Eugenics still exists today, pushing harmful stereotypes and standards towards people of color.

The problem with Sydney Sweeney x American Eagle

Now, let’s break down this ad. The beginning 30 seconds are generally normal, with Sweeney flaunting her jeans while whispering to the audience in a monotone voice. It then switches to a clip of her pulling up and buttoning her pants sensually, with her jean jacket unbuttoned, with nothing but her bare skin under it. As she does this, she says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue.” A man’s voice then repeats, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”

Though they are describing the deep blue color of the jean clothing, they also play on words. It’s easy to spot, Sweeney talks about her genes, including her eye color, which is blue. Ironically, the man directly after says, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” as the camera zooms and pans onto her face, forgetting the clothing. Clearly, talking about Sydney Sweeney’s blue eyes.

Another clip slowly zooms in on Sweeney as only her upper half of her body is shown. Her breasts are strategically pushed together, creating cleavage, while she just wears a jean jacket as her coverage. Her monotone voice quotes, “My body’s composition is determined by my genes… Hey, eyes up here!” with a male voice directly after says “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” As Sweeney speaks, the camera slowly zooms and pans to her cleavage. She then snaps at the ‘audience’ for not looking at her eyes while she’s speaking. Undeniably, the ad doesn’t just promote how her cleavage looks in the jacket, but how she has “great breasts”. Instead of her jean jacket and pants being the sole focus of the advertisement, her breasts become the main camera focus.

Arguably, some see this as subjective or ‘cherry picking,’ because while some parts of the ad, like the ones mentioned above, are very questionable, others are objectively normal, just showing off the jeans.

But how is this a play on eugenics?

Though the ad doesn’t say “we think her genes are the best out of everyone ever,” it’s extremely suggestive. It doesn’t represent any sort of diversity and instead plays on the typical traits that are historically favored for beauty. Racist or “minority rejecting” beauty standards are not a light and funny topic, nor something normally played on.

In the end, it is subjective whether or not you feel or believe that this ad went too far, or if this interpretation is valid. But, it is also important to understand that even if it seems like a stretch, there is always a history that is necessary to teach and not repeat.

Sources cited –

Unwanted Sterilization and Eugenics Programs in the United States

A Civil Rights Challenge to Standardized Testing in College Admissions

https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Eugenics-and-Scientific-Racism

https://www.britannica.com/science/eugenics-genetics

https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-and-history-race-eugenics-racial-integrity-act-health-disparities#:~:text=By%20the%20start%20of%20the,poor%2C%20mentally%20ill%20and%20incarcerated.

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/01/nx-s1-5487286/sydney-sweeney-american-eagle-explained-why-controversy-racist-eugenics-trump-bathwater-ad-klein-statement

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2025/06/17/sydney-sweeney-bathwater-soap/84234757007/

https://eji.org/news/history-racial-injustice-racial-eugenics/