# Story 2: Sydney Sweeney 'Jeans or Genes' ad controversy - **Episode:** [226](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/226.md) (2025-08-26) - **Type:** other - **Tags:** advertising, controversy, celebrity - **Time:** 11:35–20:06 (start 695s) - **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/226?t=695](https://truthliesandwork.com/226?t=695) --- [11:35] Leanne Elliott: Number 6. Ooh, this is a fairly recent one. I'm not sure you would've, this would've entered your world. Let's see. Sydney Sweeney's jeans or jeans American Eagle ads [11:46] Al Elliott: Oh yeah [11:47] Leanne Elliott: Yeah. So, this was July, so about a month ago. So, what happened if you haven't heard of it? American Eagle, which is a clothing brand in the US, launched their fall autumn campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney. She's a very famous one from, I wanna say Euphoria [12:03] Al Elliott: I don't know where she's from. I've just seen, I've seen a lot of her [12:07] Leanne Elliott: Yes [12:08] Al Elliott: Both a lot of her and also a fair amount of her [12:10] Leanne Elliott: Yes, she is, she is famous for many reasons. Um, so the, the tagline of the campaign was Sydney Sweeney has great jeans, J-E-A-N-S. This campaign then included a video where Sydney Sweeney says genes, G-E-N-E-S, are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, Or even eye colour. My genes are blue. While the camera then pans to her blue eyes. You might think this is harmless. Well, criticism began very swiftly on TikTok and X, with users calling it eugenics propaganda due to the blonde, blue-eyed actress discussing good genes. A few days later, a White House spokesperson got involved [12:52] Al Elliott: Of course they did. Yeah, that's what we need [12:54] Leanne Elliott: They, they, I believe that Donald Trump is a big fan of Sydney Sweeney, and I cannot imagine for why. Um, but, but this White House spokesperson called the backlash cancel culture run amok, um, and Trump went on to praise both Sweeney and the ad campaign, leading to a 23% stock rise on August 5th. Um, so yeah, in terms of the reaction, it generated over 50 million readers across 3,000 news articles, 18 times more normal mention volume for the brand. Critics argued it echoed historical eugenics messaging, while supporters praised it as pushback against woke Marketing. So the question is, Al, is this calculated corporate strategy during a DEI backlash that delivered massive results, or is it harmful messaging that echoes historical eugenics and should have been caught? [13:42] Al Elliott: Well, I think it's both, and I'll tell you for why. I think that it is harmless, um, and I think it is deliberate because I think the agency who did this is genius because they've gone, do you know what they could do? Jeans is like jeans. And once we did a jeans thing, once American Eagle was like, we can't do that. And they're like, yeah, you can [14:02] Leanne Elliott: Yeah [14:03] Al Elliott: And now they've got millions, potentially hundreds of millions of pounds worth of earned media from it. Is that the right term? Earned media? Basically not paid for media. Everyone's talking about it. We're talking about it 3 months, 2 months later. I've seen so much stuff on there. And also, this is right. Here's a boomer. Here's a boomer account that's probably gonna get me canceled. I think there are a lot of people in the world where there's not a whole lot going on in their life and they're just looking around and they cannot wait to find something to be outraged about. And they saw this and they went, it doesn't even apply to me, but I'm outraged. And I think that's what's happened. And I think there are a few people who've gone, yeah, is this like a sort of a Nazi thing? Can we say Nazi? I don't know how to believe that [14:46] Leanne Elliott: You just did [14:47] Al Elliott: You just did. Is this like, is it like you said, um, This is all about blonde hair, blue eyes. Man, I think just there's bigger things to worry about than a pair of fricking jeans. What do you think? [14:58] Leanne Elliott: Oh, we are so gonna get cancelled for that [15:01] Al Elliott: Yeah, well, I've said it, not you [15:03] Leanne Elliott: I, oh, do you know what I think it is? I think it is people's window of tolerance for this level of BS has shrunk down massively because we're seeing such a rollback in human rights in terms of diversity and equity and various minority groups, including women, and the rollback of women's health and DEI initiatives in organisations and the rise of racism and hate crimes. And it's anything that is potentially fanning the flames of this and causing more divide. I think understandably people are speaking up and going, this seems a little bit problematic. Would this have been as problematic 3 years ago? Maybe not. Maybe not. Also, wouldn't it have been as effective 3 years ago? And that's what irritates me about marketers. Like, we're all angry. Of course we're all angry. We're frustrated. We're feeling a bit segregated and we're feeling a divide and we're feeling a bit sensitive and vulnerable. And you're going to poke that bear to make some money. Of course you are, because that's what works. That's the behavioral science behind it all. But man, if you used your powers for good, what a world [16:11] Al Elliott: But you can't use your powers for good. This is the problem, is that if you want to affect change and marketers want to affect change, they want people to move to American Eagle brand to buy their jeans, then they've got 2 options. They go, American Eagle jeans are really nice. Or they go, Sydney Sweeney's got great jeans. Maybe, maybe it's a, you know, I don't know what the alternative, you know, what were they trying to say? But anyway, my point is, They had to go down this route. Otherwise it's just like, oh, we got nice jeans. You should maybe go and buy some. They didn't have to go down the route, but it's— I admire it. I think it's a bold advertising campaign. I think it was intentionally meant to fan flames. And I think that, um, there's probably some 1% of the complaints are probably genuine and have got genuine points behind them. I am sorry, but my personal— and this is, this is not the opinion of the podcast or Leanne, but my personal opinion is [17:05] Leanne Elliott: Yeah [17:05] Al Elliott: 99% of people just saw something to get outraged about and went, yeah, great. Right. Do you remember back about 15 years ago on Radio 2 where Russell Brand, although he's no, no longer a good guy, Russell Brand and who was the other guy? [17:20] Leanne Elliott: Oh yeah [17:21] Al Elliott: And they, um, it was really famous. Who was it? What's he called? Jonathan Wass [17:25] Leanne Elliott: Granddaughter or something [17:26] Al Elliott: Phoned someone's granddaughter and did something weird, said some horrible stuff [17:30] Leanne Elliott: Yeah. And bearing in mind, Russell Brand has now been in court for rape and sexual assault charges. So [17:37] Al Elliott: Yeah. So I think that maybe, yeah, maybe Russell Brand was— anyway, that's a different conversation. My point was that when— Leanne's looking at me going, where the hell are you going with this, Al? The point was that the BBC got about 200 complaints for when that went out. And then when it hit the papers the next morning, then they got about 20,000 complaints. Now, those people hadn't heard the original stuff. They were just like, this is terrible, right? I'm gonna go and complain about it. And it's like, Really? [18:04] Leanne Elliott: Fair enough. But equally, I think there's an element of when these things hit the news or hit social media, an element of education as to why this is problematic [18:12] Al Elliott: Okay [18:13] Leanne Elliott: For example, you spoke to Enid O'Rourke not so long ago and have now had a complete rethink about how you describe people, where you'll catch yourself, you go, oh, I met this incredible woman today, and you're like, wait a minute, why did I misgender them? I met this incredible person today, let me tell you about them. I think there's a— of course there is a balance So we can continue to have conversations and be creative and empathize and learn more about each other in an open, honest way that doesn't feel like we're having to tiptoe or walk on eggshells. Equally, I just think any messaging that causes more divide in the, for the sake only of infamy and profit doesn't sit nicely with me [18:57] Al Elliott: Fair enough. So, on a scale of A to F, what are you giving it? [19:00] Leanne Elliott: Um, another D. I think it, it, it, you know what, it reveals deeper problems in our culture, in our organizational life, in our leadership. Um, I don't think it's necessarily the ad campaign. I think it's how it was done, the timing of it, and, and how people will now also use it as another kind of kind of marking point to go, oh, well, all this DEI stuff is just complete BS because do you remember how Trump backed up the Sydney Sweeney campaign and he said it was fine and she was just selling jeans? So it's the creep that makes me uncomfortable. It normalizes these types of, of divisions and segregations, and that I'm not down for [19:43] Al Elliott: Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, my instinct is to give it a C. Because I don't think it's, I don't think it's made work life better in any way, but I also don't genuinely don't believe it's made life work, work life much worse. So I'm going to go with C, which stands for, which also is the word cancel starts with C. So yeah, Leanne, have we got time for one more before a break or should we go to a break?