What Sydney Sweeney’s Ad Says About Body Inclusivity

If you’ve spent any time on the internet in the past few weeks, you’ve likely seen the American Eagle campaign featuring a slithering Sydney Sweeney explaining how genetics work. “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color,” she whispers in the ad, which debuted July 23. “My genes are blue.” A voiceover follows: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”

The campaign, American Eagle’s most expensive to date, plays up the double entendre with “genes” visibly crossed out for “jeans.” The message is clear: great genes amount to a thin frame that’s voluptuous only in specific areas, along with white skin, blue eyes, and hair that’s dyed blond. It stings at a time when body inclusivity in fashion has waned and it’s hard to tell if the industry will regress or evolve.

A week after the campaign launched, Lizzo joined the conversation. “My jeans are brown,” her post read, along with the joke that American Eagle’s ad would feature her — a plus-size, Black woman — if the cultural climate were different. It’s a funny meme, but there’s a fascinating subtext: the notion that what’s happening in the zeitgeist determines which bodies are celebrated and which are rendered invisible. History shows us that Lizzo has a point.

Over time, denim campaigns have transformed in lock step with the rise and fall of the body-positive movement.

The data has always been clear. Jeans are a universal fashion item that anchors most of our wardrobes: American shoppers buy 450 million pairs of jeans each year. And the average American woman’s size lands at 14 to 16.

But denim ads have rarely reflected the people actually buying jeans.

In 1980, Calvin Klein dropped the campaign that loosely inspired Sweeney’s ad: 15-year-old Brooke Shields posed for Richard Avedon’s camera, her abs on full display as she kicked her thin legs in the air.

Denim campaigns in the ’90s continued to pedestalize whiteness and thinness. Kate Moss’s waifish figure, featured prominently in Calvin Klein Jeans ads, became the standard. Brands like Versace Jeans tapped supermodels to front their campaigns, who were overwhelmingly white and thin.

And not much changed at the start of the millennium. Y2K denim trends like low-rise jeans seemed to require thinness for participation. Denim ads were just as exclusionary. “In the early aughts, Abercrombie sold a singular image of thin, white, and cool, and customers were either erased completely or expected to conform,” writes shopping director Sarah Wasilak in a previous article for Popsugar. A&F wasn’t alone: True Religion, 7 For All Mankind, and Diesel casted thin models almost exclusively. It’s worth noting, however, that Black-owned brands like Baby Phat and Rocawear did cater to women with curves, offering denim options with stretch which was forward-thinking and revolutionary at the time.

The 2010s marked a major, mass-market shift as the body positivity movement began to formally take shape. Brands like Universal Standard and Good American built not only their advertising but their entire business model around inclusivity. Gap celebrated its 50th anniversary with a campaign called “It’s Our Denim Now,” which featured models of different sizes, genders, races, and ethnicities.

And now, just 10 years later, that commitment to body inclusivity is slowly fading.

There are exceptions. Abercrombie & Fitch revamped its branding with a “Denim Your Way” campaign and offers up to size 37. Old Navy tapped Precious Lee for their “Maximal Denim” ads inspired by the glamour of the ’50s and grit of the ’90s, two eras when a size 12/14 model would never have been cast.

And Levi’s featured Beyoncé in a recent, wildly-successful denim campaign, reimagining throwback ads by inserting the superstar — a curvy Black woman — and other people of color into their iconography.

But other brands are doing the opposite, quietly moving their plus size offerings from in-store to online, or shuttering them all together, the former of which TikTok influencer Samyra has done an incredible job of documenting.

Sweeney’s American Eagle ad is only the latest example of that regression. By relegating “great genes” to thin bodies, the campaign signals a return to an era when body dysphoria was rampant in the denim market and the fashion industry at large.

American Eagle published a response last week in an attempt to quell the backlash, suggesting that the campaign is just about jeans and has no deeper cultural significance. But given the double entendre and the history of exclusionary denim campaigns, we know that’s simply untrue.

It’s critical that we give voice to the subtext of denim ad campaigns; they have a long, documented history of reflecting and shaping culture, for better or worse. We must also continue to push back on size exclusivity and push toward a more body-positive future.

Today, great jeans should be universal, because everyone has always had great genes.

Jessica C. Andrews (she/her) is an award-winning editor and writer who currently works as the senior style director of PS, overseeing beauty, fashion, shopping, and identity content. With more than 15 years of experience, her areas of expertise include fashion, shopping, and travel. Prior to joining PS, Jessica held senior roles at Teen Vogue, Refinery29, and Bustle and contributed to The New York Times, Elle, Vanity Fair, and Essence. She’s appeared on “Good Morning America,” NBC, and Fox 5 New York and spoken on various panels about fashion, hair, and Black culture.