At first glance, Sydney Sweeney’s new American Eagle commercial might seem like a cheeky play on words. The actress smiles as she talks about having “great jeans”—a reference to both denim and family lineage. She repeats the phrase with a wink and a giggle, as if it's just clever branding. But dig a little deeper, and it becomes clear that this isn’t just denim marketing. It’s coded messaging.

In a country where the phrase “great genes” has long been weaponized to imply racial and genetic superiority, watching a blue-eyed, blonde-haired white woman gleefully associate her looks with her inherited “jeans” is not harmless. It’s especially troubling in a political era where fascist-adjacent ideologies are once again being flirted with in mainstream discourse. This commercial—whether consciously or not—feeds into a eugenics-lite narrative that praises whiteness as the gold standard of beauty and worth.

Let’s not pretend this is accidental. Ad campaigns go through dozens of rounds of creative direction, approvals, and rewrites. Every word, outfit, and facial expression is curated. So the choice to make a campaign hinge on Sweeney repeating the phrase “great jeans/genes” over and over is intentional. It plays into the aesthetics of whiteness while subtly reinforcing the idea that beauty, success, and desirability are things you’re either born with—or not.

And yet, the backlash is met with the usual deflections. “It’s not that deep,” critics say. “It’s just a pun.” But in a country where policies are being written to erase histories and communities that don’t center white narratives, everything is that deep. Media doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It reflects culture. It shapes perception. It signals whose stories and identities are worthy—and whose are disposable.

This is exactly why media literacy matters. We need to get better at interrogating what we consume, even if it comes with a pretty face and clever wordplay. Just because something is wrapped in nostalgia, humor, or Americana doesn’t mean it’s free of insidious subtext. The most effective propaganda doesn’t scream—it whispers.

Ultimately, this is a reminder that whiteness continues to be idealized and normalized in media under the guise of relatability. And when those ideals are dressed up as genetic destiny, we should all be paying closer attention.