Right-Wing Influence Shaped the Sydney Sweeney Ad Debate

To hear Vice President JD Vance tell it, the Democratic Party has a serious Sydney Sweeney problem.

“Did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?” Mr. Vance asked of the Democrats during a podcast interview last week. “The lesson they’ve apparently taken is, ‘We’re going to attack people as Nazis for thinking Sydney Sweeney is beautiful.’”

His comments joined a chorus of Republican and right-wing voices who argued that a new American Eagle ad campaign with Ms. Sweeney, one of Hollywood’s top young stars, had stoked left-wing outrage over its slogan: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” They claimed that progressives were up in arms over the intentional double-entendre with the word “genes,” suggesting it was winking at eugenics or white supremacy.

In reality, most progressives weren’t worked up much at all.