Just 12% of Americans Found The Sydney Sweeney Ad Offensive: Poll
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A new poll has revealed a stark disconnect between social media outrage and public opinion regarding the viral Sydney Sweeney ad campaign for American Eagle, with just 12% of Americans surveyed saying they found the ad offensive.
The Economist/YouGov poll, conducted August 9-11 among 1,635 U.S. adults, asked respondents whether they found the advertisement featuring the Euphoria star “more offensive” or “more clever” after viewing the campaign, which featured the tagline “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.”
Here’s what the survey found:
• 39% found the ad clever
• 12% found it offensive
• 40% said neither
• 8% were unsure
The results suggest that the massively viral debate that erupted on X and other social media platforms following the ad’s release was not representative of broader American sentiment.
In the wake of the ad’s release, a number of social media accounts decried the message as racist or even Nazi-coded. That bizarre criticism went viral and was then trumpeted by the right — all the way up to the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, who used the online furor to bash Democrats in a podcast interview.
“Did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?” Vance asked in an interview with the Ruthless podcast. “The lesson they’ve apparently taken is, ‘We’re going to attack people as Nazis for thinking Sydney Sweeney is beautiful.’”
The New York Times reported how much of the response to the ad was artificially generated:
Criticism of the ad campaign had come almost entirely from a smattering of accounts with relatively few followers, according to an analysis of social media data by The New York Times. Conversation about the ad did not escalate online or in traditional media until days later, after right-leaning influencers, broadcasters and politicians began criticizing what they described as a wave of progressive outrage.
American Eagle even addressed the controversy in a statement: “‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”
Demographic breakdowns in the YouGov poll reveal interesting patterns in the responses. Men were significantly more likely than women to find the ad clever (49% vs. 31%), while women were slightly more likely to find it offensive (17% vs. 7%). The ad performed best among Republicans, with 57% finding it clever compared to just 22% of Democrats.
Age also played a factor. Among those 65 and older, 34% found it clever while only 13% found it offensive. Among the youngest demographic (18-29), 45% called it clever and 12% found it offensive.
