Name: Sydney Sweeney addresses American Eagle ad controversy
Uploaded: 2025-11-08T22:30:19.261Z
Duration: 6 min 23 s
Description: Sydney Sweeney responded to criticism of her American Eagle ad in a GQ interview, declining to engage in controversy. Panelists discussed a broader trend of celebrities and brands moving away from political statements to avoid alienating audiences.

Sydney Sweeney responded to criticism of her American Eagle ad in a GQ interview, declining to engage in controversy. Panelists discussed a broader trend of celebrities and brands moving away from political statements to avoid alienating audiences.

Hollywood

Actress Sydney Sweeney addressed the controversy surrounding her American Eagle advertisement during a GQ interview, stating she chooses when and how to respond to criticism and emphasizing her self-worth. She declined to directly engage with accusations related to 'genetic superiority,' and American Eagle stood by the campaign, which reportedly led to increased revenue.

Panelists, including Republican strategist Chris Johnson, praised Sweeney's approach and discussed a perceived shift away from 'wokeness' in celebrity and corporate culture. A clip of Jennifer Lawrence was also featured, where Lawrence expressed skepticism about the impact of celebrity political endorsements and the risk of alienating audiences, with panelists agreeing that both celebrities and brands are becoming more cautious about making political statements.

Sydney Sweeney addresses American Eagle ad controversy

Sydney Sweeney breaks her silence on the American Eagle ad controversy. Sweeney sat down for an interview with GQ on Tuesday. Initially, Sweeney kept things light when addressing the drama during the interview. However, when she was asked directly if she wanted to address the incident, Sydney says, I'll vent to my girlfriends. Other than that, I know my value. GQ tries to have a gotcha moment with Sweeney pointing to the main route of the criticism, the genetic superiority controversy. Sweeney's response. Let's take a listen. The criticism of the content, which was basically that maybe specifically in this political climate, like white people shouldn't joke about genetic superiority. Like that was kind of like the criticism, broadly speaking. And since you are talking about this, I just wanted to give you an opportunity to talk about that specifically. I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear the risk is that, you know, there's a chance that somebody will get some idea about what you think about certain issues and feel like I don't want to see Christie because of that. Like, do you worry about that now? Let's welcome back Republican strategist Chris Johnson. Chris, I thought that was a brilliant response by Sidney Sweeney. I think conservatives need to take note. Don't be lured into these like fake controversies. Yeah, I think when we were in sort of peak woke in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, there were a lot of us on the right that felt like we had to play on defense and apologize for our beliefs or apologize for just existing the way that we are. And Sidney Sweeney is dealing with that. I don't even know what her politics are, but the fact that she didn't take the bait here is a real sign that we are totally past peak woke, where you're getting this sort of therapy speak, up speak kind of question where you're insinuating that you're wrong, you know, and they speak in a certain way and they've been doing this for years and people are tired of it. People are just done with it. I don't know if we're post woke. I don't know if we've gotten past. I'm post peak woke. It might ebb and flow a little bit. Because that reporter, I mean, quite literally thought that Sidney Sweeney was preaching eugenics with that good genes ad, which it was not anything about, but she thought she was going to lead her into a gotcha moment or get her to apologize for basically just starring in a campaign of what she got paid. Right. And I'm wondering how much just markets in general are moving this direction, moving wokeness, moving away from wokeness. I mean, this is somebody who is asking gotcha lefty questions on behalf of a magazine called Gentleman's Quarterly, right? This is something that used to be a men's magazine. It was about dudes and dressing well and how to be a man and all that kind of stuff. And instead, you're getting asked these weird lefty cultural questions. And so I think you're going to start seeing folks like her realize that there's just not a market for this anymore. Even when we were at peak woke, I think even the market that existed was largely fake because everybody was just performing this kind of thing. And now that nobody feels the need to perform it, even an actress like Sidney Sweeney, who could totally do this. She could do the bit and say all the right buzzwords and, you know, I apologize for my white privilege, yada, yada. The fact that she doesn't need to do that is a great sign. Well, you know, American Eagle also didn't apologize. As a corporation, they were pressed to give their thoughts on the campaign. They said that they were proud of the campaign. And you know what? Their stock price went up. They were rewarded by it. It made them millions of dollars. And we see similar things like with Cracker Barrel, for example, when they wanted to get rid of their logo, their old timer logo, and go to something more modern. The market reacted very negatively. Right. Well, and that's, again, it's speaking to the GQ thing where their traditional audience is, you know, young men, you know, professional men. Cracker Barrel's audience is mostly conservative, older folks. And so trying to modernize and do the sort of corporate pastiche in a Cracker Barrel is just bizarre. And so you're completely going against your own audience because, again, in the last five years you basically were told that it was worth it to force an audience to go in a certain direction because they didn't know better or they needed to know better. I mean, you're watching. That's the biggest problem with the Democratic Party right now. Well, I want to cut to a clip of Jennifer Lawrence, because this goes to what you're saying, actually. A famous movie star who has been very politically active in the past. This is what she said about, you know, campaigning in Hollywood. Let's take a listen. You have been politically outspoken in the past. In the first Trump administration, you know, you had a lot to say. I'm curious how you feel about talking out now. I don't really know if I should. I think like the first Trump administration was so wild and just how can we let this stand? Like I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. But as we've learned election after election, celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for. And so then what am I doing? I'm just sharing my opinion on something that's going to just add fuel to a fire that's ripping the country apart. I mean, we are so divided. I mean, hallelujah. Yeah, right. This is some common sense coming from Hollywood. Well, and it's a blessing. But, you know, you're seeing it just drive this populist moment where people are negatively polarized by the elites. It's not just what she's saying where people don't care what celebrities say. They actively despise it. They are looking in the opposite direction when they say don't support Donald Trump. They're going and donating 50 bucks to his campaign. That's exactly what's happening here. So glad that some folks are realizing it so we don't have to be lectured every time we watch the Emmys and Jimmy Kimmel tells us how evil we are. We don't have to deal with that anymore. People are realizing that that only hurts the candidates and policies that they support. And Jennifer Lawrence, I think she's also realizing it hurts box office numbers because she said, I don't want to alienate half the audience who wants to come and see my art and see my performance. That's exactly right. So it's good that they're wising up. All right. Chris Johnson, please stay with us.

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