Doja Cat mocks Sydney Sweeney’s controversial American Eagle ad

The controversy around American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney campaign overshadows the charitable component at its core.

Even Doja Cat has something to say about Sydney Sweeney’s controversial American Eagle campaign. 

On Monday, July 28, the 29-year-old singer uploaded a video on TikTok mocking the 27-year-old actress’s line from one of the visuals accompanying her campaign, which has come under intense fire for serving fashion with a side of fascist undertones. 

“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, and often determine traits like hair color, personality, and eye color,” Doja tells the camera in an exaggerated, almost country-sounding accent. “My jeans are blue.” 

The line was quoted verbatim from Sweeney, and along with the major slogan, “Sydney Sweeney has good jeans,” it is among the reasons why many are criticizing the campaign. 

Released officially on Wednesday, July 23, the campaign features the “Euphoria” star in head-to-toe denim, declaring she has “good jeans,” whilst being white, blonde, and blue-eyed. In one of the campaign’s main videos, Sweeney lounges in a mirrored room on a blue armchair, dressed in a denim jumpsuit. 

She speaks softly and coyly to the camera, explaining, “I’m not here to tell you to buy American Eagle jeans.” 

She repeats some version of that line several times, while subtly contradicting herself by listing the jeans’ many benefits, like comfort, fit, and complementing one’s derrière, before standing and running her hands along her hips and backside. The ad ends with a male voiceover declaring, “Sydney Sweeney has good jeans,” as the phrase appears in light blue text on the screen. 

What might have been intended as clever wordplay about denim has quickly spiraled into controversy. Critics have labeled the campaign tone-deaf at best and Nazi propaganda at worst, arguing that the language of “good genes,” combined with Sweeney’s aesthetic and her family’s alleged right-wing leaning associations, evokes longstanding eugenicist rhetoric used to idealize whiteness and promote racial purity. Given the fraught history of genetic language in both advertising and political propaganda, many saw the campaign as not innocent but symbolic.

The campaign also arrives in stark contrast to two other major fashion campaigns that debuted this summer. Beyoncé’s collaboration with Levi’s in celebration of “Cowboy Carter,” which dropped before her tour, has been lauded for its intentionality. Likewise, Ralph Lauren’s recent collection pays tribute to the Black generational legacy of Oak Bluffs in Martha’s Vineyard, featuring Black models in the coastal setting. Against that backdrop, American Eagle’s “good jeans” campaign feels not just out of touch but dangerously oblivious.

Meanwhile, denim, one of the simplest, most ubiquitous garments a person can own, is somehow often at the center of cultural controversy. From designer price tags to exploitative labor practices, jeans have long sparked discourse. This is far from the first ad campaign to spark debate. (Brooke Sheilds ring a bell for anyone?) The controversy this time, though, has gotten so loud that a charitable component to Sweeney’s campaign that benefits a cause Black women face disproportionately is being overshadowed. 

According to a release, one of the styles in the collection, dubbed “The Sydney Jean,” has a butterfly motif adorning the back pocket to represent domestic violence awareness. The full proceeds of the purchase of “The Sydney Jean” will be donated to Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit offering free, 24/7, confidential mental health support to anyone in need.