Some brand deals come with champagne, billboards, and fan edits. Others, like Sydney Sweeney’s latest, come with think pieces, X brawls, and a sudden plunge into cultural theory no one signed up for. American Eagle probably wanted effortlessly chic, but got a full-scale sociology seminar instead. What began as denim marketing now teeters on the edge of political philosophy, genetics discourse, and the very specific drama of fastening jeans under the world’s loudest microscope.

While the internet was busy stitching outrage into every seam, an unexpected ally stepped in, armed not with hashtags, but with a shopping list and some denim devotion.

Some men send flowers. Dr. Phil McGraw sends American Eagle jeans. On Real Time with Bill Maher, he lashed out at the outrage: "Six million Jews were massacred and murdered, and they equate that to a blue jeans ad for a Hollywood actress? What an insult." He doubled down with a pledge to buy jeans for every woman he knows, a gesture Bill Maher quickly flagged as “a little creepy.”

The ad’s premise was textbook wordplay, Sydney Sweeney, blue jeans, blue eyes. Cue: "Genes are passed down from parents… My genes are blue." Harmless? Some saw it as a runway strut straight into white supremacy symbolism. TikToker named @jessbritvich argued it “echoes the language of white purity politics.” Suddenly, the zipper sound became a cultural signal, and the tagline, once cheeky, turned into a rallying cry for both outrage and defense squads.

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While the zipper drama tightened its grip online, political engines were already revving, ready to turn a denim debate into a full-blown campaign stop with its own partisan runway.

Adding fuel to the debate, reports surfaced that Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican. Reporters asked Donald Trump, after his plane landed in Allentown, Pennsylvania, about his thoughts, and he chimed in: "If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic!" Cue conservative pundits defending her, liberals dragging her, and American Eagle scrambling with a statement insisting the ad “is and always was about the jeans.” Ironically, the only thing uniting everyone was the fact that… well, the jeans fit.

This is where marketing becomes mythology. Brands dream of viral, not viral-with-a-side-of-political-theory. Yet here we are, with denim turned into a moral litmus test and Sydney Sweeney’s ad copy living rent-free in sociology essays. The internet has declared sides: the defenders in their fresh American Eagle fits, and the detractors armed with cultural history receipts. Either way, the jeans have outlived the campaign and walked right into the halls of controversy.

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What are your thoughts on Sydney Sweeney’s jeans ad backlash and Dr. Phil’s full-throttle defense? Let us know in the comments below.