Do You Have "Good" Genes?

Have you ever been led to believe that there is a superior race? Have you come across subtleties hinting that “white is right”? The uprising of eugenics in marketing has shocked many, as Sydney Sweeney featured herself in an American Eagle ad with a play on “jeans and genes.”

What really is eugenics, though? Why is it prominent in marketing? How does it affect us culturally? 

Eugenics started as a theory, which proved to be inaccurate rather quickly—it stated that there is a way to create a “superior” race solely based on genetics through selective breeding. This theory grew in popularity throughout the early 20th century. Methods such as sterilization, segregation, and social exclusion were put in place to help achieve an ideal society. This was then later known as scientific racism. Many used Mendel’s laws of inheritance to back their reasoning, they attributed the “good” qualities of many, as well as the “bad” qualities to this study. However, this failed to recognize recessive traits. The general idea of eugenics stemmed from xenophobia, racism, antisemitism, among other discriminatory beliefs.

The actual term was coined by Francis Galton, who happened to be a cousin of Charles Darwin. Galton described his term to be “the study of agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally.” By the 1920s, eugenics became a global movement with government support in Germany, the United States, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, Canada, among other countries. Respected people in many fields such as statisticians, anthropologists, sociologists, economists, social reformers, geneticists, public health officials and members of the general public, continued to support eugenics through displays of academic and general literature. The most well-known example of eugenics was the Holocaust, where Nazi Germany aimed to create a “superior” Aryan race by cleansing out ethnicities such as Jewish people, the LGBTQIA+, disabled people, and other “inferior” races or marginalized communities that did not fit into their world. This ethnic cleansing euthanized millions as World War II progressed.

Western countries such as the United States have seen eugenics as well, best known for their discriminatory actions against Indigenous Americans, Latin people, African Americans, alongside other communities. Within the occidental areas, the best known examples of eugenics were through their acts of slavery and the banning of interracial marriage. 

It is not common to see drastic measures taken to enhance eugenics, however, there is still an area where these opinions and ideals can be shown. The marketing industry is able to say, as loudly or quietly as they want, what they want their audience to know, and that can often contain subtleties of eugenics. The most recent example of this is Sydney Sweeney’s recent ad campaign for American Eagle. Sydney rose to fame for her starring roles in HBO’s “Euphoria” and has publicly worked with several brands and films since. Sydney is a blonde-haired and blue-eyed American, where she is advertising jeans with the line of text, “Sydney Sweeney has great genes,” before the word “genes” is crossed out and replaced with “jeans.” This struck controversy, many are calling American Eagle out for claims of white supremacy alongside Nazi propaganda. Sydney is also caught saying that “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color,” Sweeney says, before the camera pans up to her blue eyes. “My jeans are blue.” This line can be interpreted as blue genes being perceived as “better” due to the context of the other lines. Many speculate that Sydney was just following a script while trying to maintain her bubbly energy, yet this advertisement is receiving vast amounts of backlash.

Traits can be viewed as better or worse based on preference, yet preference is subject to change. Beauty standards will be ever-changing alongside cultural preferences and ideations, so it’s important not to give into the idea that one race is inferior to another. Genetics are unique to a person, and that goes beyond a jean campaign.

Eugenics and scientific racism. (n.d.). Genome.gov. https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Eugenics-and-Scientific-Racism

What’s next for American Eagle after “great jeans” campaign sparks backlash. (2025, July 30). [Video]. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-eagle-sparks-backlash-touting-sydney-sweeneys-great-jeans-rcna221478