The great ongoing American conversation escalated into a great American bar fight this summer, as a long and increasingly unhinged national back-and-forth about race, politics, sexuality, the nature of both the Trump administration and fame itself was triggered by … a jeans ad.
What happened? American Eagle released a campaign starring the exceedingly charismatic actress Sydney Sweeney. In one ad, she is seen clad in a revealing version of the Canadian tuxedo, veritably busting out of a not really buttoned jean jacket. But though the mere facts of her physical existence have ignited multiple national debates previously, in this case, the reason people are talking (and talking!) is that the ad’s script had her making puns about genes and jeans.
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring,” she says in one ad. In another cut, in which the camera aggressively zooms in on her cleavage, she claims: “My body’s composition is determined by my genes.”
Some viewers immediately connected the genetics commentary to her brilliant blue eyes and blonde, fine hair. After all, it was just last October that Donald Trump was identifying “bad genes” as a cause of invented or real crime committed by immigrants. Many felt that the ad was playing into this dark, not-very-concealed conversation about genetics in America.
“This is intentional. This is pointed, and you’re calling out to the consumers that you hope to attract here,” said Cheryl Overton, a long-time brand strategist and communications executive. “If American Eagle is really out there trying to target Americans to the right or to the far right, so be it. If that’s who the product is designed for now, that is their right as a company to do that. But you have to know that folks are educated, folks are nuanced, and folks are willing to call brands out.”
