The ad campaign American Eagle ran with Sydney Sweeney in July quickly outgrew the container of retail fashion that it was created within. The promotional material for a line of jeans arrived with the tagline, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans/Genes.” The play on words was slammed with allegations of dog-whistling eugenics. The conversation swelled, spilled over, and soon enough, the president and the vice-president of the United States were using it as culture war ammunition. Sweeney herself said she barely saw any of it.

“It was surreal,” Sweeney told GQ about her experience seeing Donald Trump and J.D. Vance speak about the ad. On Truth Social , Trump wrote, “ Sydney Sweeney , a registered Republican, has the ‘HOTTEST’ ad out there.” Vance said on a podcast that Democrats exp

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