Many people loved the famous actress Sydney Sweeney. I say that in the past tense because many people also began to abandon Sweeney’s fandom after the premiere of her American Eagle ad. The annoyance is palpable, something experienced by a reporter who went to interview people in Minnesota about the controversial Sydney Sweeney ad. Since the commercial’s release, the internet and people are even more divided in their opinions.
On TikTok, sav_says_1 shared an excerpt from a FRONTLINES interview. In this interview, the reporter went around interviewing people at an event in St. Paul, Minnesota, about what they thought of the American Eagle Sydney Sweeney ad. To which most of the interviewees reacted with annoyance and even anger. This is because the event’s attendees think that the ad promotes a hegemonic beauty that highlights white women, and that those are the best genes. This is because of the word play in which Sydney Sweeney says she has “the best jeans”. Also, people believe that if, instead of this actress, it had been a woman with another ethnicity, the message would be different and even inclusive. Among all those interviewed, it was surprising that one person asked to stop the commercial issue and instead continue the fight to include others, saying that this was what was truly important.
On the other hand, there is a part of the opposition saying that people who hate the ad is because liberals are manipulating them. Something similar to sav_says_1 wrote in the video description, “Liberal white women have been conditioned to hate themselves so much that the mere mention of Sydney Sweeney’s name was enough to cause them to start crashing out in live time“. Others think it’s too much controversy over just a commercial, like ray elj, who wrote “🤣🤣 I can’t believe folks get this wounded up at an ad“. Another group thinks that the hatred is simply envy of the actress, as Tommy wrote, “they all just jealous bc they DONT HAVE GOOD GENES”.
The important thing about this whole issue is to remember that we all have the right to different points of view, and that we must respect the opinions of others. However, what is worrying is that people are becoming increasingly divided and are beginning to isolate themselves in bubbles of people who share similar views. Much of this prevents us from opening up to new ways of thinking and feedback that could enrich our minds or our country.
