Ted Cruz defends Sydney Sweeney, American Eagle 'good jeans' ad from 'crazy Left'

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Ted Cruz (left, photo by Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images), Sydney Sweeney (right)(Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is defending actor Sydney Sweeney from the "crazy left" after she received online backlash from American Eagle's latest marketing campaign about "great jeans."

What they're saying:

"Wow. Now the crazy Left has come out against beautiful women," Cruz said on X. "I'm sure that will poll well."

Why is American Eagle’s campaign getting backlash?

American Eagle's newest marketing campaign features Sweeney with the tagline "Sydney Sweeny has great jeans."

A teaser video posted to social media switches the word to "genes," and has sparked criticism from some who say the messaging can evoke racist undertones and reinforce outdated ideals of beauty.

The criticism centers around a short video where 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."

In one video, Sweeney walks toward an American Eagle billboard of her and the tagline "Sydney Sweeney has great genes." She crosses out "genes" and replaces it with "jeans."

Some viewers saw the ad as celebrating a narrow set of physical traits, with critics arguing that it subtly implied these traits were inherently superior. Others noted the historical use of the phrase "good genes" in the context of eugenics—the discredited theory of improving human populations through selective breeding—which has ties to racist ideologies, including those promoted in Nazi Germany and early 20th-century America.

What they're saying:

Marcus Collins, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, told the Associated Press that the criticism for the American Eagle ad could have been avoided if the ads showed models of various races making the "genes" pun.

"You can either say this was ignorance, or this was laziness, or say that this is intentional," Collins said. "Either one of the three aren’t good."

Other commenters accused detractors of reading too much into the campaign’s message.

"I love how the leftist meltdown over the Sydney Sweeney ad has only resulted in a beautiful white blonde girl with blue eyes getting 1000x the exposure for her ‘good genes,’" former Fox News host Megyn Kelly wrote Tuesday on X.

What's next:

American Eagle also plans to launch a limited-edition Sydney jean to raise awareness of domestic violence, with sales proceeds going to a nonprofit crisis counseling service.

In a news release, the company noted "Sweeney’s girl next door charm and main character energy – paired with her ability to not take herself too seriously – is the hallmark of this bold, playful campaign."