Is a Hollywood actress actually using Nazi dog whistles? Do progressives actually think she is? And while we’re at it, does it matter?
A clothing company ran a jeans ad with a famous actress, and people have been arguing about it ever since. Or maybe the whole controversy was fake, and people have been arguing about what exactly they’re arguing about. Either way, the outrage cycle has eclipsed the original story and become completely self-sustaining.
The whole thing started in July, when American Eagle debuted a new ad campaign—reportedly the most expensive in its history—starring Sydney Sweeney, the buxom actress from shows like Euphoria and films like Anyone but You. And in one ad, Sweeney, lounging in jeans and a denim jacket, says: « Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue. »
The ad wields a pretty obvious pun, using Sweeney’s status as a beautiful woman—a result of her genes—under the tagline « Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans. » Before long an X user was comparing Sweeney to Hitler in a post that currently has 3.4 million views. A TikTok video with millions of views referred to the ads as « fascist weird, like Nazi propaganda weird. »
« The phrase, used in bold on billboards in Times Square and Las Vegas, was designed as a denim pun. But online, many saw something else: ‘great genes’, a phrase historically used to celebrate whiteness, thinness and attractiveness », someone wrote in Salon on July 27. « Eugenics movements in the U.S. often promoted the idea of ‘good genes’ to encourage reproduction among white, able-bodied people while justifying the forced sterilization of others. Critics say those ideas still show up in modern advertising and influencer culture, often unexamined. »
Conservatives took notice of progressives’ overreaction. « The new campaign from American Eagle, starring the blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty, has sent the woke mob into a meltdown », the New York Post declared.
