‘Cancel culture run amok’: White House responds to backlash over Sydney Sweeney jeans ads

It’s the controversy that just won’t go away, and now the White House is weighing in on the American Eagle jeans advertisement featuring actress Sydney Sweeney. 

Steven Cheung, longtime adviser for Donald Trump and the White House communications director, wrote on X: “Cancel culture run amok. This warped, moronic and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024. They’re tired of this bullshit.” 

For context, the tagline of the ad campaign is “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” and plays on the homonym ‘jeans’ and ‘genes’.  

One of the clips centres on Sweeney saying: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.” 

This has led many to take issue with the ad, accusing American Eagle of promoting “white supremacy” and eugenics, with some calling the campaign a “Nazi” dogwhistle. 

Check out our explainer on the Sydney Sweeney controversy.  

Since the ads were released last month, the pushback has been growing in intensity – with some reactions going viral online. 

The clips have split opinions, with many arguing that in the current political climate, the racial undertones of the campaign are a bad look.

One TikTok post by @thealtperspective has been viewed nearly 2 million times and has the text overla:y "literally an ad FULL of racist and fascist dog whistles. 'great jeans,' a pun on great genes, those genes being blue eyed, blonde hair, white skin." 

However, the American Right has used the controversy to blast the liberal Left and to push back against perceived “wokeness.” 

For instance, conservative TV personality Megyn Kelly has also called out the “lunatics on the Left” for their take-down of the ad. 

“She’s being called a white supremacist by people who don’t like her latest ad, which is for American Eagle,” she said. “She’s advertising jeans, and yet the lunatics on the Left think she’s advertising white supremacy. This is obviously a reference to her body and not to her skin colour, but the lunatic left is going to do what the lunatic left is going to do.” 

Kelly added: “They’re upset because it’s about who gets to be the face of America’s Best Genes. They think it’s no accident that they’ve chosen a white, thin woman because you’re, I guess, not allowed to celebrate those things in any way, shape, or form. But they’re completely ignoring the reference to her body, which is the thing she’s famous for. It’s just absurd.” 

As expected, the recent post on X by the White House’s communications director has only added fuel to the fire.

Check out some of the reactions below:  

Despite the controversy generated by the ads, the clips have been going viral – with the most ‘popular’ ad garnering more than 80 million views as of 31 July.

The ads have also boosted American Eagle’s stock by more than 15 per cent.  

This isn’t the first time that Sydney Sweeney has been surrounded by controversy.

The Euphoria and White Lotus actress faced criticism earlier this year for the sale of a Dr. Squatch bar of soap that contains her actual bathwater. Many labelled this as being antifeminist.  

Additionally, in 2022, she was slammed by fans after photos showed guests wearing MAGA-like hats at a 60th birthday party for her mother. 

Sweeney addressed this in a statement, saying: “An innocent celebration for my moms milestone 60th birthday has turned into an absurd political statement, which was not the intention. Please stop making assumptions.” 

Still, the internet was far from convinced...  

Neither Sweeney nor American Eagle has publicly responded to the controversy as of the publication of this article.