American Eagle shut down the critics after Sydney Sweeney confronted backlash for joking about having “nice genes” in a controversial denim marketing campaign with the model.
“‘Sydney Sweeney Has Nice Denims’ is and at all times was in regards to the denims,” the corporate mentioned in a press launch obtained by Web page Six Fashion Friday.
The style model added that it’s “Her denims. Her Story.”
“We’ll proceed to have a good time how everybody wears their AE denims with confidence, their means,” the assertion continued, earlier than concluding, “Nice denims look good on everybody.”
Earlier this week, Sweeney landed in sizzling water after showing in a denim advert for the Pennsylvania-based enterprise by which she rolled round in a Canadian tuxedo whereas raving about having “nice Denims.”
“I’ve nice denims…now you possibly can too @americaneagle #AEPartner #AEJeans,” the blond-haired, blue-eyed actress wrote on Instagram alongside a video for the marketing campaign.
The slogan, supposed to be a pun on the phrase “genes,” instantly upset social media customers, with some calling it “Nazi propaganda.”
“When these traits are persistently uplifted as genetic excellence, we all know the place this leads,” one particular person argued in a TikTok video.
“This simply echoes pseudoscientific language of racial superiority,” she continued. “All all through historical past, these traits have been weaponized to uphold a racial hierarchy.”
Others hopped to Sweeney’s protection, siding with American Eagle’s newest assertion that the marketing campaign was a easy case of wordplay.
The model appeared to close down eugenics accusations by sharing one other sequence of photographs as a part of the “Nice Denims” marketing campaign by which a black girl with darkish hair posed in comparable denim outfits, although commenters had been nonetheless skeptical.
“Denim on denim on denim… on denim. AE has nice denims👖✨,” the corporate captioned the images on July 27.
Notably, American Eagle’s inventory reportedly jumped by 18% after the marketing campaign dropped, and whereas numbers have dipped, the corporate continues to be popping out forward from the place it began earlier than Sweeney’s advert made headlines.
The “Euphoria” actress has but to touch upon the viral discourse over the picture shoot, however each Lizzo and Doja Cat have mocked Sweeney with their very own satirical model of the marketing campaign on social media.
Seemingly misplaced within the dialog is that Sweeney’s collaboration with American Eagle is for a superb trigger, with 100% of the acquisition costs to be donated to Disaster Textual content Line, a nonprofit group that gives 24/7 psychological well being assist.
