ABC News’ Good Morning America First Look aired a report Tuesday that drew a controversial comparison between American Eagle’s new ad campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney and Nazi propaganda. The ad, which plays on the double meaning of “genes” and “jeans,” has sparked backlash from some on the left, with critics accusing it of promoting racial undertones.
In the segment, GMA anchor Rhiannon Ally stated, “the play on words is being compared to Nazi propaganda with racial undertones.”
The campaign features Sweeney posing in denim alongside the caption “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans (genes),” a reference that critics claim evokes white supremacist ideology. ABC News interviewed Professor Robin Landa of Kean University, who linked the ad to early 20th-century American eugenics, saying it echoed past justifications for white supremacy.
“The blond haired blue eyed actress talks about genes as in DNA being passed down… ‘Nazi propaganda with racial undertones…’ This is Good Morning America. This is ABC News,” wrote one critic on X under the name MAZE, alongside a clip of the segment.
Landa expanded her criticism in comments to Newsweek: “The campaign’s pun isn’t just tone-deaf—it’s historically loaded.” She explained that “good genes” was once a slogan tied to eugenics movements that endorsed white genetic superiority and led to policies like forced sterilization. Landa warned that using such language in advertising can normalize exclusionary ideologies masked as clever branding.
Others, however, pushed back against the outrage. Conservative commentator Tara Servatius posted a still from the ad and commented, “Do the angry liberal women losing their minds over this realize half the ads in the 80s and 90s looked just like it? Overt heterosexuality was still allowed back then.”
Do the angry liberal women losing their minds over this realize half the ads in the 80s and 90s looked just like it?
— Tara Servatius (@TaraServatius) July 29, 2025
Overt heterosexuality was still allowed back then. #SydneySweeney pic.twitter.com/wd7g3fesmN
Xaviaer DuRousseau also weighed in: “As a PROUD black man, I see nothing wrong with Sydney Sweeney and American Eagle parading her ‘good genes/jeans.’ Celebrating blue eyes and blonde hair isn’t ‘white supremacy.’ Those are conventionally attractive, GOOD GENES. That doesn’t mean they’re the ONLY good genes.”
As a PROUD black man, I see nothing wrong with Sydney Sweeney and American Eagle parading her “good genes/jeans.”
— Xaviaer DuRousseau (@XAVIAERD) July 28, 2025
Celebrating blue eyes and blonde hair isn’t “white supremacy.” Those are conventionally attractive, GOOD GENES. That doesn’t mean they’re the ONLY good genes. pic.twitter.com/FNfcpHuXZg
The campaign drew comparisons to a 1980s Calvin Klein commercial featuring Brooke Shields that also played on the “genes/jeans” pun. While the Shields ad avoided controversy over the wordplay, it did spark debate due to her being underage at the time.
Despite the uproar, American Eagle’s campaign appears to be succeeding commercially. Reports indicate the company’s stock has risen by 25% over the past month. One user remarked, “American Eagle is betting they can sell jeans to normal people, not a tiny minority of deranged harpies.”
"The blond haired blue eyed actress talks about genes as in DNA being passed down…"
— MAZE (@mazemoore) July 29, 2025
"Nazi propaganda with racial undertones…"
This is Good Morning America. This is ABC News. pic.twitter.com/dmvZjQy0B3
"The campaign's pun isn't just tone-deaf—it's historically loaded," Professor Robin Landa told Newsweek. https://t.co/7Ym62ep6Tb
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) July 28, 2025
And the stock’s up 25%.
— Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) July 28, 2025
American Eagle is betting they can sell jeans to normal people, not a tiny minority of deranged harpies. https://t.co/K3ePyToBBp pic.twitter.com/vpzRT0I83P
