Actress Sydney Sweeney is making her first public comments following the significant backlash to her viral American Eagle ad campaign.
The 28-year-old celebrity discussed the drama during a newly published interview with GQ. When asked by the interviewer what it was like when President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance weighed in on the campaign, Sweeney gave a one-word answer: “Surreal.”
She also said not to believe the lies being circulated about American Eagle losing business because of it.
“I was aware of the numbers as it was going. So when I saw all the headlines of in-store visits were down a certain percentage, none of it was true,” she told GQ. “It was all made up, but nobody could say anything because [the company was] in their quiet period. So it was all just a lot of talk. And because I knew at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was great jeans, it didn’t affect me one way or the other.”
Sweeney deflected when asked if “there [is] something that you want to say about the ad itself” because “the criticism of the content was basically that, maybe specifically in this political climate, white people shouldn’t joke about genetic superiority.”
“I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear,” the actress said. She also said she put her phone away and stayed busy with filming the entire time she was making headlines for appearing in the ad.
“I didn’t really see a lot of it,” Sweeney said of the critical comments.
Controversy erupted over the summer over an ad spot featuring Sweeney in various seductive poses while saying she had “good jeans.” The double entendre with the word “genes” made leftists deem the ad racist, noting that Sweeney is white with blond hair and blue eyes.
In one of the ads, Sweeney says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue.”
American Eagle responded to the backlash by issuing a simple statement: “’Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”
Trump’s response to the ad campaign was positive after the president discovered that Sweeney was a registered Republican.
“She’s a registered Republican?” Trump confirmed with a reporter in August, as The Daily Wire previously reported. “Oh, now I love her ad. Is that right? Is Sydney Sweeney? Yes. You’d be surprised at how many people are Republicans. That’s what I wouldn’t have known. But I’m glad you told me that. If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.”
Vance also weighed in on the controversy during an appearance on the “Ruthless” podcast.
“My political advice to the Democrats is: continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi,” Vance quipped.
“You have like a normal all-American, beautiful girl doing like a normal jeans ad, right? They’re trying to sell… jeans to kids in America and they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing. It’s like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?”
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