TV host Megyn Kelly slammed critics on Monday who accused actress Sydney Sweeney’s new American Eagle ad of promoting white supremacy, calling the controversy “absurd” and blaming the “lunatic left” for creating outrage.Speaking on her podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show, the host said Sweeney is being unfairly labeled a white supremacist over her role in American Eagle’s new denim campaign. “She’s being called a white supremacist by people who don’t like her latest ad, which is for American Eagle,” Kelly said.“She’s advertising jeans, and yet the lunatics on the left think she’s advertising white supremacy. This is obviously a reference to her body and not to her skin color, but the lunatic left is going to do what the lunatic left is going to do,” she added.The controversy began after Sydney Sweeney appeared in an American Eagle ad where she jokes about having “great jeans”—a play on the word “genes.” The 27-year-old Euphoria star is seen in a classic Americana setting, fixing a car and driving while wearing the brand’s denim.The tagline reads: “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.” The campaign plays on the word “genes,” as Sweeney herself is seen in a video replacing the word “genes” with “jeans” using red paint.In a voiceover, Sweeney says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.”
The ad quickly went viral, but not just for its style. Some critics have called it tone-deaf and accused it of promoting whiteness, thinness, and even eugenic ideology. Megyn went on to say that critics are upset over who was chosen to represent “America’s Best Genes.” She argued that people are “upset because it’s about who gets to be the face of America’s Best Genes. They think it’s no accident that they’ve chosen a white, thin woman because you’re, I guess, not allowed to celebrate those things in any way, shape, or form. But they’re completely ignoring the reference to her body, which is the thing she’s famous for. It’s just absurd.”The backlash stems from the phrase “great genes,” which critics say carries historical links to white supremacist and eugenic ideas. A widely circulated Salon article and viral social media posts claim that phrases like “great genes,” when paired with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman like Sweeney, echo historic white supremacist rhetoric and Nazi propaganda.One TikTok user commented, “A blonde-haired, blue-eyed white woman talking about her good genes? That’s Nazi propaganda.”Some also took issue with the part of the ad where Sweeney paints over the word “genes” with “jeans.” They say it feels like an attempt to dismiss or joke about the deeper meaning, while still visually promoting ideas of genetic superiority.
