Sydney Sweeney’s shift from sweatpants to jeans has made headlines worldwide.
Less than a month ago, the Euphoria star was featured in an American Eagle denim ad campaign that sparked conversations from Donald Trump to Doja Cat. Now, she’s back on Instagram, sharing photos of herself with loved ones, wearing a white tee and yes, blue jeans.
PEOPLE reported that the actress likely wore American Eagle jeans in the candid photos. The outlet speculated denim was the night’s theme, as all her friends also wore denim. The post was captioned with: “duval diaries.”
While there’s no solid proof whether the jeans are from American Eagle or not, if one zooms into the photo, the letters EA are slightly visible on the inside of the jeans, though the rest of the text is shadowed. Which means there’s a high possibility that the jeans are from American Eagle.
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The whole American Eagle drama started when the 27-year-old actress became the face of the brand’s denim campaign, turning a lot of eyeballs in her direction.
“When they were like, ‘We want it to be a denim campaign’, I was through the roof”, Sydney expressed, according to the media outlet.
She added, “I was like, ‘This is it. This is Syd. I will be able to bring this to life. You have no idea.’” PEOPLE also noted that Sweeney called the denim a “perfect” fit.
But perhaps what she didn’t realize was that her ad was going to take the internet by storm. The tagline of the campaign was “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans”, which resulted in a social media battle. Viewers and critics raised their concerns about the word “jeans” being used as a play on “genes”, stating that it underscores racial undertones and reinforces eugenics or genetic superiority.
Additionally, feminists all over the globe pointed out the overall positioning of this ad and how it catered to the male gaze. In fact, some also drew parallels between this ad and Brooke Shields’ controversial 1980 denim campaign.
Be that as it may, neither Sydney Sweeney nor American Eagle seemed to be affected by the furore. The two-time Emmy-nominated actress is set to have an upward career graph with two back-to-back films released on weekends in August, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The first one is Tony Tost’s Americana, followed by Ron Howard’s period thriller Eden, where she shares the screen alongside Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, and Daniel Brühl. Not just that, but the final season of Euphoria is set to hit the OTT sometime in 2026.
Very recently, the actress made her first appearance post American Eagle denim ad controversy on Sunday, August 3, for the special screening of her film Americana in Los Angeles, as reported by PEOPLE.
She also promoted the film on Instagram, as she posted a carousel of images capturing BTS images of the film. Featuring Paul Walter Hauser and singer turned actress Halsey, the Immaculate actress captioned the post with:
“A few years ago, I filmed this little movie with some friends, and now you get to meet Penny Jo.”
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Although Sweeney has not released any official statement about this issue, American Eagle did release one on August 1 in a social media post, which read:
“’Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”
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American Eagle’s “Sydney Has Great Jeans” campaign was launched on July 23, aiming to break new records with the actress’s mass appeal. According to THR, the campaign included print ads, billboards, and Snapchat lens technology where the users could talk to a digital Sweeney seamlessly.
In recent months, Sweeney has become the dream girl for a lot of advertisers. In May, the actress collaborated with Dr. Squatch to create a new soap that’s been composed with a “touch” of her bathwater, as stated by USA Today.
This contemporary Sweeney wave in advertisements definitely grabs our attention towards mass culture and how companies today use diverse ways to relentlessly boost their sales without ethical considerations or cultural awareness.
Speaking about how or whether this would affect Sweeney’s career, an unidentified legal source acquainted with the nitty-gritties of A-list brand deal negotiations mentioned that it might be too soon to tell whether the social media uproar will affect the actress’ future, according to THR.
“Companies might prefer not to work with her if they believe consumers have Sweeney fatigue or if her exposure could tarnish their image,” the expert noted to the news outlet.
Quite interestingly, AE’s denim ad campaign might pan out in favour of the company. In conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, the Chief Commercial Officer of brand tracking platform Tracksuit Matt Herbert revealed that the company’s brand awareness was low by 6% points from January 2024 to June 2025.
Herbert revealed that AE was “facing pretty big challenges over the past 18 months”, with consideration, preference, and usage declining by 5 % points. He added, “any celebrity (endorsement or) brand activation is an attempt to drive relevance, which we know from looking at all of our tracking data.”