Sydney Sweeney Nods At Her Now-Infamous American Eagle Ad In Cheeky New Campaign

Screenshot of Sydney Sweeney in her "great jeans" ad for American Eagle
(Image credit: American Eagle)

Last summer, Sydney Sweeney partnered with American Eagle for a jeans campaign that caused a lot of hullabaloo for claims that it was promoting eugenics. But, now the actress' new campaign shows that she didn’t burn any bridges with the clothing brand, and she and American Eagle don’t mind sending up a little nod at the controversy, too.

Yes, Sweeney is back with a second campaign with American Eagle after the first campaign ended up making American Eagle a ton of money (including a 10% stock increase) despite all the backlash. Check it out below:

Sweeney has remained a partner with AE since the ad came out, but now she’s back in a big way for the latest American Eagle summer campaign, and her look is completely refreshed! The Euphoria actress can be seen with shorter hair as she models the brand’s jean shorts this time around. The campaign is called “Syd For Short”. These words from Sydney Sweeney from the new ad definitely serve as a wink at the last time she did a commercial for American Eagle:

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What brand am I wearing? Yeah… that one.

The original ad’s tagline was “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans”, caused a lot of negative responses from the internet, but the brand did end up standing by their campaign rather than apologizing. Here’s what American Eagle chief marketing officer Craig Brommers said (via USA Today) about their decision to work with Sweeney again:

When we thought about what we could do next together, it wasn't about going backwards – it was about going forward… The world is curious and the world will be talking when we launch the campaign… As we learned in the fall campaign, there is noise, but there are also facts as well, and we're excited to see where this campaign takes our brand.

Brommers also added that “the real world is very noisy right now” and one message of the ad is “to turn the volume down, just be your true self and then live your life in American Eagle jean shorts in the summer”. If you somehow haven’t seen the original campaign Sydney Sweeney did last year, you can check out below:

Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans | American Eagle - YouTube Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans | American Eagle - YouTube
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Sydney Sweeney’s new brand is nowhere near viral yet, but we’ll be curious how the public reacts to her followup ad. The new American Eagle partnership comes as Sydney Sweeney is on the 2026 TV schedule for Euphoria Season 3. She returns in the role of Cassie Howard in a five-year time jump that has her and Jacob Elordi’s Nate getting married and living together in a suburban mansion.

You can watch new episodes of the series also starring Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Alexa Demie, Maude Apatow, Colman Domingo and Eric Dane every Sunday on HBO and with a HBO Max subscription.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.

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