American Eagle’s latest campaign’s tagline — “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” — plays on the word ‘genes’, which naturally leads viewers to think about the genetics of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman. The campaign has sparked backlash online. Some social media users have accused the clothing retailer of promoting “Nazi propaganda” and eugenics, which is a discredited scientific theory but popular among white supremacists, according to whom, the human race could be improved by breeding out less desirable traits.
Sydney Sweeney’s ‘great jeans’ ad shows the risks of edgy marketing
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