Cal Thomas: A denim ad hits a nerve

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 7th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Here’s WORLD commentator Cal Thomas on fads, foolishness, and fun.

CAL THOMAS: Some fads end slowly, taking up to a generation to decline. Others come and go like lightning—bursting on the scene unexpectedly, destroying all in its path. Yet ending unexpectedly.

This is what has happened in the Sydney Sweeney storm and her ad for American Eagle blue jeans. The reaction has catapulted the 27-year-old actress to national fame and controversy.

Move over Taylor Swift!

In case you weren’t paying attention, the ad shows Sweeney provocatively modelling denim jeans and a jean jacket. Some push-back centered on so-called “traditional beauty standards.” But what sparked the woke left’s outrage was the ad copy. It invoked a double meaning: “It’s not just good genes. Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” Critics claim the ad promotes eugenics.

Critics also began likening the reference to genes, instead of jeans, to the pursuit of a master race by the Nazis.

The reaction was swift. Sales of American Eagle Jeans flew off the shelves. The company stock soared 25 percent on Monday. On hearing that Sweeney is a Republican, President Trump said:

TRUMP: If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.

Her voting precinct is in Florida’s most southern and conservative Monroe County. Liberal outrage surged further when a video showed Sweeney firing a gun at a gun range.

What this signals is that promoters of the culture wars are losing. The recent resignation of Jaguar CEO Adrian Mardell also proves the point. Jaguar created an ad featuring people wrapped in shades of pink. No cars appeared in the ad. It was made to introduce an all-electric product line beginning next year. Jaguar buyers rebelled. So did some dealers who knew their customers didn’t want a single option. One person posted on social media “I don’t own a Jaguar, but if I did I would sell it.” Jaguar owners, like most of the rest of the country, want the freedom to choose the type of car they wish to buy. According to a Gallup Poll in March, interest in owning an electric car has dropped from 51 percent to 40 percent. It is not likely to go higher for some time, if at all.

As for those American Eagle jeans, we’re not talking about the “No Excuses” jeans promoted by Donna Rice after her affair with Colorado Democrat Senator Gary Hart became public in 1987. Nor the “You’ve Got the Power” ad featuring a Monica Lewinsky clothing line after her sexual encounters with President Bill Clinton. Those ads exploited what might be called negative celebrity. The Sweeney ads and the left’s reaction to them are combatting the cultural zeitgeist.

Comedian Bill Maher said this about the Sweeney backlash on his HBO show:

MAHER: In other uncomfortable racial news, sad news, we found out this week that Sydney Sweeney is a Nazi. No she’s not, but you’ve seen the ad she is dressed like Jay Leno in all blue denim. And she talks about the fact that she has blue eyes and then says she has great jeans, you know, because she’s wearing jeans! But according to the woke people this means she’s a white supremacist.

He goes on to point out one of many double standards revealed by the whole thing…

MAHER: I also (think) it’s pretty funny that all the online social justice girls are like ‘it’s racist, there is no such thing as good genes.’ Right, and then you go on Tinder and swipe left on every bald guy.

I wonder if American Eagle carries my size?

I’m Cal Thomas.

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