US President Donald Trump has weighed in on the fallout over Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad while speaking in a fiery interview with Newsmax anchor Rob Finnerty. The campaign, featuring Sweeney and using the tagline ‘Sydney Sweeney has good jeans’, has sparked debate over race and beauty standards. Responding to a question on whether America needs more ads like that and fewer featuring people like Dylan Mulvaney, the trans actor who appeared in a 2023 Bud Light campaign, Trump suggested that the Dylan Mulvaney ad was the “worst” he’s seen, reportedly saying “It knocked $35 million off the value of a certain company… I would say it was probably the most unsuccessful ad, worst ad ever.”
“I’ve done ads where I thought they were lousy and they turned out to be iconic… the Dylan Mulvaney ad was a total disaster,” Trump quipped, while using the moment to highlight his own marketing genius, and praising the Sweeney campaign and subsequent public response to it.
Thoughts on the Sydney Sweeney Ad
The American Eagle ad featuring Sweeney appears to have triggered national debate across the US because of its “genes and jeans” wordplay. Sweeney says, “My body’s composition is determined by my genes,” as critics linked the references to her blonde hair and blue eyes. Many others, however, viewed it as a subtle nod to white genetic ideals, thereby raising concerns over implicit bias in advertising.
Brand strategist Cheryl Overton revently told CNN, “If American Eagle is trying to target Americans to the right… you have to know folks are educated and willing to call brands out.”
Fashion historian Emma McClendon, for ther part, told the Amaerican media network that mocking political reactions by calling it “just jeans” ignored how personal fashion can shape identity. “There’s nothing more intimate to our identity than how we outfit our bodies.”
Culture War Over Jeans?
What began as a fashion ad soon exploded into a debate about race, beauty, and politics. Even Vice President JD Vance weighed in, suggesting Democrats were escalating the outrage.
Amid the uproar, American Eagle released a mild statement: “Great jeans look good on everyone.”
Meanwhile, Sydney Sweeney herself weathered the storm gracefully. Experts believe the controversy only boosted her star power as she remains “enigmatic, marketable, and not the center of social media blowback”.
ALSO READ: JD Vance Takes A Dig At Sydney Sweeney’s Controversial “Great Jeans” Ad, American Eagle Responds
