What the controversy over Sydney Sweeney's jeans ad tells us about public opinion

Every era has its scandal. Adults will surely remember the inflammatory controversy sparked in the 1970s by the advertising posters for the Jesus Jeans brand, which became one of the cult items of the entire decade, thanks to the master of provocation Oliviero Toscani and the ironic creativity of Emanuele Pirella . A media and commercial phenomenon that caused a sensation in an Italy that had just emerged from the 1968 movement, but was still profoundly bigoted. So much so that those images of opulent and alluring carnality, wrapped in the sturdy canvas of jeans called, in a tone considered blasphemous, by the same name as the “Son of God” , sparked a full-blown boycott campaign, a denunciation, and even an intervention by Pier Paolo Pasolini . In the Corriere della Sera , in fact, he published a commentary entitled “The crazy slogan of Jesus jeans”, defining the advertisement as “the new spirit of the second industrial revolution”, a forerunner of the values that were in the process of transformation.

Today it's the turn of American Eagle 's new advertising campaign, starring Sydney Sweeney —actress from the series Euphoria , the rom-com Everyone But You , and the upcoming film Christy, about boxer Christy Martin, and perhaps a future Bond girl. At the center of the controversy is the slogan "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans," which seems to allude to a play on the words "jeans" and "genes ." First in the United States, then throughout the world, a debate has raged over the possible references to racist ideologies and concepts linked to eugenics.

So much so that many have spoken of "supremacist rhetoric disguised as fashion." On social media and talk shows, several American commentators have branded the campaign as tainted by racism , Aryanism , if not downright Nazism . On the other hand, figures like Stephen Colbert – one of the most beloved faces on American television – have called it "a slightly overreaction." Vice President J.D. Vance , addressing the outraged, instead shifts the issue to a political level, writing: "Haven't you learned anything from the November 2024 election? Apparently, you think calling people who think Sweeney is gorgeous a Nazi is a great strategy."

Certainly, if the goal was to draw attention to the campaign's claim—and therefore to the product—the advertising success is undeniable and has polarized public opinion, especially in the United States. The American Eagle campaign won the approval of conservative Americans, who immediately adopted it as a symbol of their opposition to what they call the excesses of "political correctness" and "woke" culture. Contributing to this interpretation is also the fact that Sydney Sweeney is an actress originally from Spokane , a city in the northwestern United States often associated with more traditionalist values and a conservative cultural context.

In any case, the episode reflects a change of trend that several analysts have already pointed out: in a climate marked by the return to the scene of Donald Trump , even the world of advertising seems to be rediscovering more conventional languages and references, after years in which the emphasis was placed on inclusivity , diversity and progressivism .