Sydney Sweeney was on her way to becoming the next big star of the entertainment industry, and she certainly was for a period of time.
She won an MTV movie award in 2022 and “Glamour Woman of the Year” in 2024. Sweeny was well-loved by the majority. That was until she did an advertisement for Dr. Squatch soap.
The ad features Sweeney unclothed in a bathtub, with the opening line, “Hello, you dirty little boys! Are you interested in my body… wash?” and many other overtly sexual statements.
This ad struck an uncomfortable nerve for many.
“I thought it was a little shocking, but I wasn’t super surprised because that’s kinda her brand,” junior Camille McConnan said.
Many people online shared the same sentiment when the ad was released in February 2024, and many women and men took to social media platforms like TikTok and Reddit to share opinions on the controversial ad.
On r/popculturechat on Reddit, a user says they don’t understand Sweeney’s brand. ‘@Ancient-Candidate493’ said Sweeny is, “Catering to the male gaze basically,” which is generally agreed upon by people all across the internet.
“A lot of women like her get kind of exploited by the industry, and are very sexualized,” McConnan said.
Women in the acting industry who have a predominantly male fan base tend to be put into roles that are highly sexualized, as that’s what sells better.
Megan Fox, Angelina Jolie, Margot Robbie and Sweeney herself are just a few examples.
This ad created a space online for men to sexualize Sweeney even more than she was before the ad.
“I knew she didn’t write out the ad and she was just doing it for money, so it was kinda understandable, but I also kinda thought that it set feminism back 20 years,” McConnon said.
Sweeney is a very popular and sexualized actor among men, so creating content catered to her fans who sexualize her sends the message that there was nothing wrong with Sweeney being sexualized in the first place.
This Dr. Squatch ad would be the beginning of the end for Sweeney’s reputation currently.
Less than a year after the soap ad, Sydney Sweeney did a denim ad for American Eagle.
This ad has Sweeney lying on the floor in a suggestive manner, with the camera zoomed in and still on her crotch area, slowly panning up her body as she explains that “genes are passed down from parent to offspring.” She ends by saying genes can determine eye color and states, “…my jeans are blue.” A narrator then comes on screen and says, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”
This ad is meant to be a play on words between Sweeney having great genetics and great American Eagle jeans.
A widespread opinion amongst the public around this ad was that it was unnecessarily sexual and potentially promoted white supremacy instead of the new line of jeans. Junior Emelia Marquis saw the ad and had her own opinion.
“I just think the whole ad in general was a weird way to advertise jeans,” Marquis said.
The general reasoning behind the suspicion of American Eagle promoting white supremacy was due to many factors, socially and politically.
The ad talks about genetics and insinuates that Sweeney’s genes are “good.” In the current political climate, saying that a white woman with blue eyes and blonde hair has ‘great jeans,’ while excluding every single other group of people in the world, can send an insensitive and dangerous message.
“I don’t think that was the intention of it, but I do think it’s definitely ignorant…The people who made it should’ve thought about it more,” McConnon said.
Though the advertisement is, after all, just an ad.
Junior Alesia Slavskiy said, “I shop at it either way, and I like American Eagle. I’m still gonna buy stuff, it’s not gonna really change much.”
American Eagle made the worst marketing mistake they could’ve made in today’s climate, though the quick public reaction that ensued after shows that American society is not yet willing to turn a blind eye to subtle racism and sexualization in any form.
