A major critique of the campaign has been that it appealed to men to sell women’s jeans—though the campaign featured both men and women’s clothing—as one social media user wrote on American Eagle’s July 23 Instagram, “this was not the move AE, we needed and wanted something DIFFERENT as women.”

Meanwhile, others took note of the brand using a play on words “Sydney Sweeney has good genes,” swapping the final word for “jeans.” Since Sweeney is white, blonde and blue-eyed—the latter of which was playfully pointed out in one now-deleted version of the ad—some accused the brand of promoting “eugenics,” and “Nazi propaganda.”

Others on social media found the ad too reminiscent of a 1980s Calvin Klein ad starring Brooke Shields that also used the same homophone and similarly sparked controversy. Shields, who was just 15 when she shot the ad, later told Vogue in 2021 she felt “naive” for doing it.

Still, Shields admitted that she remains somewhat proud of the iconic ad campaign, which remains a reference in pop culture to this day.

“The controversy backfired,” she added to Vogue. “The campaign was extremely successful, and then the underwear overtook the jeans.”

And this isn’t the first time Sweeney herself has bubbled up discourse for an ad campaign, either. Many of her fans had polarizing reactions to Sweeney signing on to promote a limited run of Dr. Squash soap, featuring her own bathwater, back in June.

“I pitched it,” Sweeney told E! News of the idea at the time, declining to say anything else about it, adding. “I think it’s more fun to see everyone else talk about it.”