Sydney Sweeney's jeans and an American (Eagle) controversy

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

Last week, clothing brand American Eagle released a series of short clips and images featuring “Euphoria” and “White Lotus” star Sydney Sweeney. They’re part of a new jeans marketing campaign – where proceeds from the sale of “The Sydney Jeans” are donated to a domestic abuse crisis hotline.

But the provocative nature of the campaign and the messaging of the ads have come under scrutiny. Some critics call Sweeney’s collaboration with clothing retailer American Eagle an anti-feminist, pro-eugenics campaign, while others celebrate a seeming shift from DEI-focused marketing.

Colby Itkowitz speaks with The Washington Post’s fashion critic, Rachel Tashjian, and Style Memo newsletter writer Shane O’Neill about the controversy, the long history of selling fashion through provocative imagery, and why we can’t stop talking about Sydney Sweeney’s jeans.

Today’s show was produced by Thomas Lu. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sean Carter.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	By now, you've likely heard about American Eagles' latest marketing campaign.
0:06.1	Hey, it's Sydney on set with AE.
0:09.2	It's a collaboration between the clothing retailer and actress Sydney Sweeney.
0:13.2	The ads for jeans released last week feature short clips and images of Sweeney as a kind of
0:18.1	all-American girl next door type.
0:20.1	At the end of the day, I love to come home and play with my dog.
0:24.8	Do you see the camera?
0:26.0	Say hi.
0:27.7	In some, she's wearing an all-denim outfit, in others, flared jeans with a fitted white
0:32.4	tank.
0:33.5	But there's one ad that's been shared around the internet, critiqued on social media, and talked
0:38.2	about in group chats.
0:39.2	Here's Shane O'Neill's style reporter for the post.
0:42.7	That particular ad is a sort of close-up pan starting from the bottom of Sidney's
0:48.2	body while she's reclining.
0:50.4	Jeans are passed down from parents to offspring.
0:53.0	We go from sort of her ankles up to her, where we see her buttoning her jeans.
0:57.0	And even I color.
0:58.2	We see her lips moving for the first time when she says, my jeans are blue.
1:02.8	Sidney's Twinnies, Hasbert Keynes.
1:07.5	From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports.
1:11.1	I'm Colby Echowitz. It's Thursday, July 31st.
	...

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