Sydney Sweeney’s recent jean campaign has been generating significant attention and controversy. Doja Cat has now weighed in on the situation with her typical sharp wit.
Known for her role in Euphoria, Sweeney has quickly risen to become a Hollywood sex symbol. She has amassed 25 million Instagram followers and is highly sought after by various brands for collaborations.
Earlier this year, Sweeney partnered with Dr. Squatch, a personal care company, to market soap made from her bathwater. The collaboration was wildly successful, with 5,000 bars sold, even causing their website to crash.
Currently, Sweeney is the face of American Eagle’s (AE) new denim collection for fall 2025, a collaboration that has drawn significant attention.
The campaign features a series of marketing videos with the slogan “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” playing on the word “genes” due to Sweeney’s natural beauty.
However, the choice of slogan has sparked backlash, with critics pointing out that Sweeney’s appearance could be seen as promoting Aryan ideals due to her white, blonde, and blue-eyed features.
Amidst the backlash, Doja Cat responded to the campaign on TikTok, making a satirical comment about the ad.
In a joking southern American accent, she remarked: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye-color. My jeans are blee [blue].” Check it out:
Doja Cat has openly discussed her own mixed heritage on Instagram, proudly stating that her father is Black and from South Africa, while her mother is a white Jewish American.
“I am a Black woman. Half of my family is Black from South Africa and I’m very proud of where I come from,” she has shared with her audience.
The AE campaign has faced extensive criticism, although the videos have accumulated over half a million views on YouTube, with the main video nearing one million views.
One video shows Sweeney pretending to post an image of herself in denim, with the words “Sydney Sweeney has great genes” crossed out and replaced with “jeans.”
One Instagram user commented: “This is what happens when you have no people of color in a room. Particularly in a time like this.
“This ad campaign got so caught up in this ‘clever’ play on words and this stunt the people in the room missed what was so blatantly obvious to anyone not White.”
UNILAD has reached out to Sweeney’s representatives and American Eagle for a statement on the matter.