Earlier this year, Sydney Sweeney sparked controversy with a provocative advertisement for American Eagle Jeans. Shortly after the commercial rolled out nationwide, uproar began to follow. The decision to end the video with the line "Sydney Sweeney has Great Jeans" is the spark that created the blaze.
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In the months that have followed, Sweeney has been asked about her role in that commercial multiple times. It was, after all, a national topic that gained international attention. During a Nov. 4 interview with GQ, Sweeney opened up on the backlash and her stance on the commercial now that there's less coverage of the incident.
"I did a jean ad," Sweeney said. "I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans. All I wear are jeans. I'm literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life."
Despite the backlash, Sweeney noted that she was isolated from all the noise, as she was on set filming for Euphoria at the time.
"I kind of just put my phone away," Sweeney explained. "I was filming every day. I'm filming Euphoria, so I'm working 16-hour days and I don't really bring my phone on set, so I work and then I go home and I go to sleep. So I didn't really see a lot of it."
With opinion split over the commercial, Sweeney appears to be staying on neutral ground.
The Noise didn't impact Sydney Sweeney
Despite the outcry, American Eagle's stock price reportedly rose by 38 percent following the commercial. Because of that, Sweeney knew that she'd done her job and the advertisement had been successful, regardless of the controversy.
"I was aware of the numbers as it was going. So when I saw all the headlines of in-store visits were down a certain percentage, none of it was true. It was all made up, but nobody could say anything because [the company was] in their quiet period. So it was all just a lot of talk. And because I knew at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was great jeans, it didn't affect me one way or the other."
Fortunately for Sweeney, she has plenty of work to keep her busy, so that she doesn't have to dwell on the wide-ranging impact her commercial had. The new season of Euphoria is still in filming, but is scheduled to release in Spring 2026. Of course, given her continued rise to superstardom, she will likely move straight into another project once filming wraps up.
