American Eagle Responds to Sydney Sweeney Backlash By Doubling Down on the Message

One week into the social-media maelstrom created by Sydney Sweeney slipping into her nice denims—whereas speaking about her nice genes—American Eagle broke its deafening silence by issuing an announcement on social media late Friday afternoon.“‘Sydney Sweeney Has Nice Denims’ is and at all times was concerning the denims,” the corporate stated. “Her denims. Her story.”Spelling means all the pieces on this case, because the mud that the advert kicked up centered round whether or not using the homophone was a thinly veiled endorsement of eugenics. As ADWEEK reported on July 29, the advert’s juxtaposition of Sweeney’s line, “My physique’s composition is set by my genes,” and the narrated slogan “Sydney Sweeney Has Nice Denims,” prompted some critics to cost that the advert was nostalgic for eugenics, a discredited perception—although widespread in Nineteen Twenties and ’30s America—that society could possibly be bettered by way of selective breeding.American Eagle’s assertion refutes to that suggestion, nevertheless, including that “we’ll proceed to have a good time how everybody wears their AE denims with confidence, their approach. Nice denims look good on everybody.”Although the submit’s intent is evidently to kind out any misunderstandings over the advert’s which means, the assertion straddles the difficulty even because it confronts it. Whereas AE makes clear that the advert was “at all times concerning the denims”—in different phrases, not concerning the desirability of sure organic and racial traits—it’s additionally clearly defending the marketing campaign.  Traditionally, in instances the place a chunk of promoting creates an imbroglio, it’s widespread for a model to apologize and yank the advert. That is what Pepsi did following its disastrous 2017 quick movie during which Kendall Jenner soothed racial unrest by handing a can of cola to a cop—a theme that offended Black Lives Matter supporters, amongst others. (“Clearly, we missed the mark,” the corporate stated on the time.)It’s additionally unclear why American Eagle waited a number of days to reply to the tumult—and did so late on a summer season Friday afternoon, after the weekly information cycle had ended. (The corporate didn’t reply by press time to ADWEEK’s request for an evidence.)In the meantime, Sweeney’s personal Instagram account has stored the actress a secure distance from the fracas that started earlier this week. Her most up-to-date submit, dated July 23, options her engaged on the engine of a 1968 Mustang fastback—sporting denims, after all.