While Sydney Sweeney has yet to address her controversial American Eagle jeans ad, she is commenting on another headline-making ad from earlier this year.
The Emmy-nominated actress recently sat down with The Wall Street Journal, where she recalled the social media buzz around her bathwater-infused limited-edition soap collab with the men’s personal hygiene company Dr. Squatch, which sold out in seconds.
Though Sweeney doesn’t lend too much of her attention to online chatter, she does “think it’s important to have a finger on the pulse of what people are saying, because everything is a conversation with the audience.”
That’s why the Euphoria star said she noted it “was mainly the girls making comments about” her bathwater soap collaboration, “which I thought was really interesting.”
She added, “They all loved the idea of Jacob Elordi’s bathwater,” referencing the viral risqué scene in Elordi’s 2023 movie Saltburn.
The limited-edition soap collaboration, called Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss, followed some suggestive ads she previously did for Dr. Squatch. The Americana actress wrote on Instagram at the time of its May launch, “You kept asking about my bathwater after the @drsquatch ad … so we kept it.”
Sweeney has since made headlines again for a jeans ad for the clothing brand American Eagle. A clip of her saying, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue,” ignited the controversy, with some social media users claiming the ad promotes eugenics or subtly nods to Nazi propaganda.
The ad controversy got so much online attention that even Lizzo, Doja Cat and Stephen Colbert and Vice President J.D. Vance and President Donald Trump weighed in. The latter said he thought “her ad is fantastic,” only after learning The Guardian reported, citing public records, that Sweeney registered with the GOP last June in Florida.
American Eagle later responded to the backlash, writing in a statement, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”