A Pun, a President, and a PR Dance
Image Credit: American Eagle
By Mirage Thrams
UN-(0r Very) American Eagle
Imagine turning on your TV and watching a denim commercial that feels like a civics lesson, a history lecture and a reality show rolled into one.. This is the America I know. An American Eagle ad taught America as much about our country as any classroom. A commercial about pants became a litmus test for history, politics, and human decency; (talk about being taken to school by your wardrobe).
How a Jeans Pun Ignited a Culture War
Sydney Sweeney, known for Euphoria and Anyone but You, starred in American Eagle’s July 2025 campaign. The tagline: “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” a pun on genes and jeans. In the spot, Sweeney flips her blond hair, gazes into the camera, and in a sultry tone explains, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring…” before quipping that hers are blue. The slogan flashed: “Sydney Sweeney Has Good Jeans.” For some, it was harmless wordplay. For others, it echoed a far darker history.
A brief history of “good genes”
Credit: American Philosophical Society. Noncommercial, educational use only.
In the early twentieth century, automobiles were replacing horses and industrial smoke was tinting city skylines. At the same time a movement called eugenics took root in the United States and Europe. Eugenicists believed that traits such as intelligence and social behavior were inherited and that society could be improved by selective breeding, according to genome.gov.
Eugenics is not an abstract concept but a lived reality that shaped lives. In the early twentieth century, the United States sterilized more than 60,000 people deemed “unfit to reproduce,” targeting poor women, immigrants, and people of color. North Carolina’s program, active into the 1970s, disproportionately harmed Black women, while California sterilized thousands of Latina women without consent, many during childbirth. The infamous case Buck v. Bell (1927) upheld forced sterilization, with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes declaring, “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Policymakers pushed for laws to restrict the reproduction of people they deemed “unfit,” leading to forced sterilizations and inspiring racist policies abroad. Miriam Rich, a historian of science at Harvard, argues that the danger was not just in the pseudoscience itself but in how respected biologists and policymakers ignored the social realities turning “good genes” into a weapon against the marginalized. It is a phrase loaded with history, from sterilisation campaigns to the pseudoscience of racial hierarchies.
And eugenics wasn’t a fringe theory whispered at the margins; it was mainstream science and policy in early 20th-century America.
The National Human Genome Research Institute calls eugenics “the scientifically inaccurate theory that humans can be improved through selective breeding of populations”genome.gov.
Because of this history, the phrase American Eagle’s loose and potentially playful pun placement of “good genes” triggers painful memories, especially among people who have been targeted by those policies and the like.
The Backlash and the Spin
Within days, TikTokers and bloggers dissected the pun like an insect under glass. Posts on social media noted that “great genes” sounded like a dog whistle for eugenics. Commenters also remarked on the image of a contextually admired white woman at a time when many shoppers want to see brands celebrate diverse bodies and backgrounds, themselves - as worthy consumers of the products they purchase.
Crisis manager Nathan Miller explained to Axios that brands often weigh whether apologizing will alienate their base. American Eagle chose silence. Its Instagram statement read: “This is and always was about the jeans. Sydney’s jeans. Her story.” The story, however, was never clarified. What is the story? The ads simplicity suggests privilege. Sydney does little within the spot. The camera pulls and punches with strong After Effects graphics. A big brand casting someone to attempt to cement against a changing acceptance of beauty, masked, to many posters, as a “cute” play on words using a young attractive woman.
Where the roads intersected led to an explosive political/social “discussion” about race.
Behind the scenes, the company hired Actum, a crisis communications firm, to manage the fallout. When the statement failed to calm the outrage, the brand posted a photo of a seemingly nameless Black model in denim. Many viewers saw this late addition as tokenism rather than proof of long‑term inclusion. To many, it looked as if the brand had rummaged through its storage and pulled diversity out like a spare mannequin.
A President Enters Stage RIGHT
Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 and again in 2025, continues to influence conservative politics. He weighed in on his social network, Truth Social. Trump praised the commercial, calling it “the ‘HOTTEST’ ad out there,” and predicted that Sweeney’s jeans would fly off the shelves. His endorsement pushed American Eagle’s share price up more than 20 percent. The incident turned a clothing advertisement into a political statement and showed how commerce and politics often collide in the United States. When your jeans become trending fodder for a former president’s feed, you know even your closet has become part of America's culture war.
Weighing the Strategy
Pros: Refusing to apologize kept the campaign in the headlines. The controversy generated more than 3,000 articles and reached over 50 million people. Loyal customers who bristle at what they call “cancel culture” may have enjoyed the brand’s defiance. The stock surge showed that outrage can sometimes translate into curiosity.
Cons: Silence on the history of eugenics and the belated diversity post alienated shoppers who value authenticity and inclusion. Market data reported by Axios shows that while mentions of American Eagle spiked eighteenfold, positive sentiment plummeted, and store foot traffic declined. Aligning the brand with partisan politics may have delighted some supporters, but it risked alienating a broader audience.
What We Would Have Done
The echo a crisis leaves is rarely about the first mistake; it is about how you respond. If I were advising American Eagle, I would have taken three steps:
Acknowledge history: A simple statement noting (if true) that the pun unintentionally evoked a painful history would have shown respect. Acknowledging harm stops it from doing more harm and means you care that those audiences and viewers were hurt.
Demonstrate authentic diversity: Instead of posting one photo of a model of color after the fact, I would have highlighted American Eagle’s existing efforts to feature people of different races, sizes, and genders. Real diversity is built over time, not inserted at the last minute.
Avoid partisan endorsements: When a former president praises your jeans, attempt to steer the public conversation back to your product. Tying your brand to any divisive figure may bring short‑term attention, but it can erode long‑term trust.
A deeper dive- Lessons Learned in PR or Crisis Control- The Long Game
Hindsight is always 20/20 and respectfully it’s very difficult to respond without reacting when time only adds to the problem. We find it important to learn from missteps an hear the lessons they teach. These lessons can be applied to many campaigns:
Pre Launch: Before the ad aired, we would have run the slogan through cultural and historical sensitivity screening. This includes reviewing language against a database of harmful phrases, running it by diverse focus groups, and pressure-testing against past PR pitfalls. A pun can be playful, but only if it doesn’t sit on top of centuries of pain. Prevention is the highest form of crisis management.
Narrative Reframing Instead of Defense: We would have pivoted the conversation to authentic storytelling: e.g., spotlighting denim as an intergenerational fabric. (“From your grandparents’ work jeans to your festival cut-offs, denim carries stories in its seams.”) This reframes the word “genes/jeans” in a way that honors history without denying it. It gives the audience something to hold onto other than outrage.
Diversify From the Beginning, Not the Middle: Instead of scrambling for a “token” post, I would have built the campaign around multiple spokespeople at the launch (actors, athletes, activists, everyday wearers) showing jeans as universal. Tokenism insults intelligence. Audiences can spot it instantly. A spread of diverse voices builds credibility that lasts beyond the controversy.
Transparency: When the backlash hit, I would have advised American Eagle to show its homework. Release a statement outlining the review process, acknowledge where it fell short, and describe specific steps being taken. Transparency takes you out of the shadows. It shows humility without groveling.
Don’t Appear to Side Politically: This can be a company’s suicide. When Trump’s endorsement went viral, we would have responded without invoking him directly. Example: “We’re glad people are talking about jeans. What excites us most is how our customers make them their own.” Then immediately release customer-generated content campaigns (#MyAEJeans). You redirect the spotlight away from partisan politics and toward your community; your actual customers.
Sustain the Fix, Not the Spin: After the dust settled, we would have rolled out a longer-term content series highlighting denim history, weaving in cultural stories from migrant workers, hip-hop culture, factory workers, queer communities, etc. This turns the crisis into credibility. You show that you didn’t just “patch” the issue but transformed it into a deeper, richer brand story.
Final Thoughts
This crisis shows how quickly a slogan or an improperly tested campaign can spiral into a cultural moment. It reminds us that audiences are not naïve and that trust is the most precious commodity in business. Because, simply, business is life. Whether you’re new to the media circus or an experienced hand at the craft, remember: never react without purpose. Respect your audience’s intelligence. And always, always do the homework before hitting “publish.”
What cultural collision surprised you when you first started paying attention to media? I’d love to hear your story..
