Jeans are apparently all the rage (to sell) these days. A truly hot commodity. Even when advertised…questionably. As American Eagle decided to do with their Sydney Sweeney-starring campaign featuring the tagline, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” While there are a number of different ads for the campaign, it was a particular fifteen-second spot that set the internet on fire with anger. In it, the camera pans across Sweeney’s body as she buttons and zips up her jeans while she delivers (in a comically blasé tone) the voiceover, “Genes are passed down to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color” (though, truth be told, they should have phrased it like, “…hair color, eye color and even personality”). She then concludes, “My jeans are blue.”
The ad immediately attracted an invective surrounding the Nazi undertones (or really, overtones) of getting a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman to promote what it means to have “good genes.” Back when Brooke Shields was “punning” the same way with Calvin Klein, there was at least a bit more nuance to it—not to mention the fact that she was a brown-haired girl who the public was more fixated on for being underage and saying, “You wanna know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” The public glommed on to that question and answer as though Shields was deliberately making a reference to not letting any dick get into her durable pants. With Sweeney, twenty-seven to Shields’ then fifteen years of age, the fixation is solely on her “subtle” promotion of this “master race” ideal. And, considering that white supremacy freak flags have been allowed to fly unchecked ever since the Orange One took office again, it’s not a great time to reinforce eugenics as “the thing.” Least of all in a mainstream ad campaign. And least of all by someone revealed to be a registered Republican.
Enter Beyoncé (herself reading as kind of Republican these days with all those high-flying American flags she’s been parading), whose own ongoing partnership with Levi’s (thanks, in part, to her having a song called “Levii’s Jeans” from Cowboy Carter) has resulted in the latest installment in their collaborative series of commercials. Titled “Chapter 04: The Denim Cowboy,” the ad features the three previous scenes viewers were already made privy to (namely, Bey in the launderette, Bey working at the diner [as if she’s ever had a “real” job like that in her life] and Bey mingling with MAGA-supporting-looking men at the pool hall). This followed by a new addition that now has fans speculating that Act III in her album collection that started with Renaissance will undoubtedly have a rock n’ roll sound. This because Beyoncé gets on a motorcycle after leaving the pool hall and rides off into the night like a rebel without a cause—but not before the requisite close-up on her ass seated on the saddle in dem jeans. The same types of close-ups that Sweeney gets in her various American Eagle spots. For the one thing about all jeans ads starring “hot women” is that the old “sex sells” “philosophy” is still used. Even if what Sweeney is also “unwittingly” selling happens to be “Aryan chic.” Something that everyone from influencer Tiffany Fong to Doja Cat to Lizzo picked up on in their mimicking (and mocking) responses to the ad.
Beyoncé, in contrast, seems to be saying everything with nothing verbal in her jeans ad, suggesting that the only thing it really takes to sell these wares is the usual oversexed sex appeal part and a song that’s tailor-made for the brand, with Bey singing (to Post Malone, making it slightly less sexy) in the original version (amended for the purposes of the commercial), “Boy, I’ll let you be my Levi’s jeans/So you can hug that ass all day long/Come here, you sexy little thing/Snap a picture, bring it on/Oh, you wish you were my Levi’s jeans.” And yet, among the other lyrics that seem to have gone undetected in the ad (specifically, during the billiards scene), there’s, “Give you high fashion in a simple white tee/Give you these blues, it’s in my genes.” Since, evidently, everyone loves to do this cliché wordplay with “genes” and “jeans.” Again, going back to the 1980 Brooke Shields commercial that’s been dredged up as a comparison to Sweeney’s. Except that Shields got way more in the weeds with her description, telling viewers as they watched her wriggle and adjust in her Calvin Klein jeans,
“The secret of life lies hidden in a genetic code. Genes are fundamental in determining the characteristics of an individual and passing on these characteristics to succeeding generations. Occasionally, certain conditions produce a structural change in the gene, which will bring about the process of evolution. This may occur in one or more of the following ways: firstly, by selective mating, in which a single gene type proves superior in transmitting its genes to future generations. Secondly, by gene drift, in which certain genes may…fade away. While other genes persist. And finally, by natural selection, which filters out those genes better equipped than others to endure in the environment. This may result in the origin of an entirely new species. Which brings us to Calvins, and the survival of the fittest.”
It’s here that Shields poses with one leg lifted so that her foot is at the same level as her head while her other knee is bended and touching the floor, making for something like a contortionist’s and/or yoga pose. Yet perhaps because this ad was aired both during the Reagan era and the “pre-woke” era, Shields’ elaborate talk of genes and what constitutes good ones was overlooked in favor of the other spot (which featured a noticeable focus on her crotch area) and hyper-sexualizing her dialogue, “You wanna know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”
Shields faced a major backlash for that (arguably an even more intense one than Sweeney is now), as opposed to her elaborate talk of genes as a metaphor for jeans. Her later assessment on the matter? “I feel like the controversy backfired. The campaign was extremely successful.” The same has gone for Sweeney, or at least American Eagle, who has miraculously watched its stock go up despite the contempt shown for the ad. Though time will tell if that really translates into increased sales of their actual product.
And yet, between these two illustrious white women shilling jeans, neither of them had the finesse, like Beyoncé, to move the product (in short, to “say it best”) by saying nothing at all. Instead letting her ass do all the talking rather than talking out of her ass about genes.
[…] much more recent (especially by modern standards, when anything more than a day old is “old”) when Beyoncé’s Levi’s commercial dropped. Almost as if she (and Levi’s) were purposefully trying to show them “how it’s done.” And […]