US jeans brand American Eagle is facing accusations its new ad campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney is "tone deaf" and promotes eugenics theory.
The advertising campaign, which launched this week, features the blonde-haired and blue-eyed actor dressed in denim and it bears the tagline: "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans."
The company saw a 10 per cent surge in sales after the advertisement's release. However, the campaign has faced mixed reviews online, with some social media users saying it alludes to theories of racial superiority.
Here's why.
Sydney Sweeney has 'great jeans'
The advertising campaign features several videos in which the company uses "genes" and "jeans" in a play on words.
Several videos show Sweeney, dressed head to toe in denim, discussing how great her genes/jeans are while playing with a puppy or starting up a Ford Mustang.
"Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour," she says in another video which has since been removed.
"My jeans are blue."
But some critics online say the ads allude to eugenics, a theory popular among white supremacists, that suggests the human race could be improved by breeding out "less desirable traits".
"After watching the full thing, I was a bit confused because I thought, 'OK it's not about selling jeans, it was about Sydney Sweeney,' and I took a step back and analysed the symbols and language used," TikTok creator and activist Jeff Kissubi said.
"She's obviously conventionally attractive but it was what they considered great genes. Pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes."
"When eugenic theory started in America, it was saying that everything that was not centred around whiteness would make your gene pool bad."
"And it was the word play of the advertisement that subtly mirrored far-right Americana themes."
'Valid criticism'
Mr Kissubi said, given the current political climate in the US, the reaction online was "valid".
"In a country where identity and belonging are already being weaponised, especially now with the far-right MAGA narrative that is on the rise, I don't think it was this overreaction," he said.
"I think that when people consume things that evoke a sudden reaction, that emotion is valid.
"When people feel erased and unsafe by what they see, it's very important brands don't exist in a vacuum."
Lauren Rosewarne, from the University of Melbourne, said while the conversations around the advertisements and race were valid, the negative interpretations of the brand's messaging could have been missed by advertisers.
"There are focus groups and these ads are never just designed in a vacuum," she said.
"They are shown to groups of people to see what things jump out at them, but this is the danger of social media; you can never focus-group enough people to fully gauge what a social media response might look like.
"Something that might not seem particularly obvious to focus groups will enter niche parts of social media.
She said advertisers were navigating an era when there were social media users with high media literacy and accounts dedicated to unpicking subtext and pop culture.
A 'divisive' figure
The advertisement is not the first to cause controversy.
Dr Rosewarne said the American Eagle videos reminded her of a 1980s ad campaign for Calvin Klein jeans.
The advertisement featured 15-year-old actor Brooke Shields and the tagline: "Nothing gets between me and my Calvins." It was criticised at the time for its suggestive nature.
Some TV networks declined to air the ad because of the suggestive double entendre and Shields's age.
But Shields told Vogue in 2021 that she thought the backlash was "ridiculous".
Sweeney has also faced controversy before.
In 2022, she shared pictures of her mother's 60th birthday in which family members wore MAGA-style hats that read "make sixty great again".
Sweeney later tweeted that people were turning an "innocent celebration" into an "absurd political statement".
Neither Sweeney nor American Eagle have commented on the backlash to the jeans ads.
And the proceeds of the jeans will be donated to The Crisis Text Line, a US charity hotline for people who need mental health support.
Dr Rosewarne said Sweeney was "always going to be a divisive figure".
"It also works for her," she said.
"She gets the opportunities because of the decisions she's made and, so long as you don't cross the line where the majority of people think it's quite problematic, throwing caution to the wind is quite seductive in certain markets, and she gets away with it because she's pretty.
"This is where we talk about pretty privilege … and that kind of slack isn't given to people who are older or less conventionally beautiful."
What is eugenics?
Eugenics is a racist and scientifically inaccurate theory that humans can be improved through selective breeding, according to the US National Human Genome Research Institute.
British explorer Francis Galton coined the term in 1883.
Galton believed health and disease, as well as social and intellectual characteristics, were based on genes and the concept of race.
He advocated for a system where "the more suitable races or strains of blood have a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable".
He interpreted certain physical traits and characteristics as more socially and economically valuable.
The implementation of eugenics theory has caused widespread harm to marginalised populations throughout history.
The movement gained traction in the late 1800s and early 1900s and some leaders and intellectuals believed the use of methods such as involuntary sterilisation, segregation and social exclusion would rid society of individuals deemed by them to be unfit.
The theory was so prevalent in America in the early 1900s that it was supported by US president Woodrow Wilson and prominent families such as the Rockefellers.
The most radical interpretation of the theory came during the Holocaust, when a large number of Nazi persecutory policies stemmed from theories of eugenics.
In Germany, the term was largely referred to as "racial hygiene" and it influenced the thinking of Adolf Hitler who blended racial antisemitism with eugenic theory, according to the US Holocaust Museum.
He used it to justify the Nazis's treatment of Jews, disabled people and minority groups.
'Shifting climate'
The Trump administration has been accused of "dog whistling" to the far-right movement through its policies targeting diversity and inclusion programs.
Shortly after taking office, US President Donald Trump signed executive orders cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
At Mr Trump's inauguration, the former head of his Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, was accused of making a Nazi salute, a claim he denied.
And in February, US Vice-President JD Vance courted the leader of Germany's far-right, anti-immigration AfD party, which Germany's spy agency has labelled racist and "extremist".
Some marketing experts say they have observed a shift in the industry since Mr Trump returned to office.
Jazmin Burell, a founder of a brand consulting agency in the US, told AP she had noticed more advertisements featuring white models.
"I can see us going back to a world where diversity is not really the standard expectation in advertising," she said.
