The Moment
American Eagle just pulled the fashion equivalent of calling in your unflappable aunt to clean up after a wild party.
After months of backlash over its cheeky “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” ads – which critics said flirted with eugenics language – the brand has quietly handed the holiday spotlight to Martha Stewart, 84.
Stewart is now fronting American Eagle’s “Give Great Jeans” holiday campaign, a denim-heavy gifting push built around the idea that jeans are a “universal gift that never goes out of style,” according to a recent lifestyle report summarizing the launch.
In a new promotional video shared on her Instagram, Stewart stands in an oversized light-wash denim shirt and skinny jeans inside a gift-wrapping setup made almost entirely of denim. She wraps an American Eagle box in jean fabric, quipping, “This holiday season, we’re settling for nothing less than a perfect fit,” and finishing with, “This gift is giving.”
She doubles down on the message in an interview quoted from a women’s magazine: “Denim is a universal gift that works for everyone on your list… giving a great pair of AE jeans is always a nice gift to give.”
All this lands a few months after Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle spot – playing on the “genes/jeans” pun and her “great genes” – was slammed by some commentators as tone-deaf, with one essay arguing that “great genes” has long been used to celebrate whiteness, thinness and conventional attractiveness.
The Take
I’ll be blunt: nothing says “we heard you, please stop yelling” like swapping a 28-year-old blonde bombshell for America’s most famous homemaker-grandma in head-to-toe denim.
On paper, it’s savvy. Stewart is familiar, safe, but still buzzy. She’s posed for swimsuit covers, hosted cooking shows with rappers, and somehow makes wrapping paper and place cards feel edgy. If you want someone to sell the idea that jeans are for absolutely everyone – your kids, your partner, your sister-in-law who returns everything – Martha’s not a bad bet.
And yet, you can practically see the strategy deck: “We need a reset. Mature credibility. Holiday warmth. Zero controversy.” Stewart checks every box, with a neat denim bow on top.
What’s fascinating here isn’t just the age swap; it’s how quickly a brand can try to rewrite a narrative. The Sweeney ads were flirty, self-aware, and (depending on who you ask) either cute wordplay or a winking nod to “genetic superiority” culture. Stewart’s campaign, by contrast, could be taught in a Marketing 101 class called “Please Don’t Get Us Canceled.”
Instead of body-focused shots and pun-heavy voiceovers about “my genes are blue,” we get practical advice from an 84-year-old icon: move around in your jeans, make sure they’re comfortable, be able to live your life in them. It’s like the brand went from TikTok thirst trap to holiday catalog in one pivot.
The bigger cultural question: Are we okay with ads being this cautious? The line between “fun and flirty” and “tone-deaf and harmful” moves fast online. One week an ad is just a jean pun; the next it’s being dissected for coded messages about whose bodies and genes are considered “great.” Brands are terrified of ending up on the wrong side of that conversation – so they reach for the one woman America almost universally trusts to keep things tasteful: Martha.
If Sydney’s campaign was a risky text sent at 2 a.m., Martha’s is the polite follow-up email that starts with “Per my last message…” Both can work. Only one gets you dragged in a think piece.
Receipts
- Confirmed: An 84-year-old Martha Stewart appears in a new American Eagle holiday campaign called “Give Great Jeans,” wearing multiple denim looks and wrapping an American Eagle gift box in denim fabric in a video posted to her Instagram.
- Confirmed: Stewart is quoted describing denim as a “universal gift that works for everyone on your list,” and saying jeans are a staple in her own wardrobe, in an interview summarized from a women’s lifestyle magazine.
- Confirmed: Earlier this year, Sydney Sweeney starred in American Eagle ads built around the tagline “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” with scripts referencing “genes” passed from parents to children and lines like “my genes are blue,” as described in coverage of the campaign.
- Confirmed: Commentators criticized the Sweeney campaign, with at least one opinion piece arguing that “great genes” language has historically been used to celebrate whiteness, thinness, and conventional attractiveness, and calling the campaign tone-deaf.
- Confirmed: In a later interview while promoting her film “Christy,” Sweeney said she loves jeans, was surprised by the intense reaction, and suggested she doesn’t speak on every controversy, but “when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.”
- Unverified / Interpretation: That Stewart was hired specifically to replace Sweeney as a direct apology for the previous ads. The company has not publicly framed it that way; this appears to be an image reset and holiday pivot rather than an official “swap.”
- Unverified / Interpretation: Any claim that the Sweeney ads were intended to promote “genetic superiority.” That language comes from critics’ readings of the campaign, not from the brand or Sweeney herself.
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
If you’re only half-watching all this from the fitting room: American Eagle is a long-running American mall brand known for denim and casual basics. Sydney Sweeney, the 28-year-old star of “Euphoria” and several recent thrillers, became one of the faces of the brand in a playful campaign that leaned into jokes about her “great jeans/genes.”
What was meant as a pun collided with a very online culture that’s sensitive (for good reason) to language about “good genes.” Critics argued the wording echoed old ideas about whose bodies and backgrounds are considered “superior.” Sweeney, for her part, has said she was surprised by the uproar and mostly stayed focused on her acting work while it raged.
Enter Martha Stewart, the lifestyle mogul who built an empire on immaculate tablescapes, recipes, and home advice. In recent years she’s enjoyed a second wave of pop-culture fame by leaning into her cool-grandma persona, from thirst-trap selfies to glam photo shoots. Now she’s the one selling American Eagle jeans as a safe, universal holiday gift.
What’s Next
The Stewart campaign will likely run through the holiday season, giving American Eagle a chance to see whether “cozy, universal denim” plays better with shoppers than “cheeky gene jokes.” How customers respond in sales – not just social media comments – will tell the real story.
A few things to watch:
- Whether American Eagle keeps Stewart as an ongoing ambassador into next year, or if this is a seasonal clean-up job.
- If the brand quietly retires the “great jeans/genes” language altogether, signaling it took critics’ concerns to heart.
- Whether Sweeney addresses the controversy more directly down the line, especially as she climbs higher on Hollywood’s A-list and faces more scrutiny with each endorsement.
- If other fashion brands follow suit and lean harder into older, legacy celebs as a kind of built-in “safety shield” against backlash.
At minimum, this whole saga proves one thing: in 2025, even a pair of jeans can come with a discourse. And when the discourse gets too loud, brands know exactly who to call – the woman who can sell a roast chicken, a centerpiece, and now, an image rehab, all in one shot.
Sources: Martha Stewart holiday denim campaign video posted on her verified Instagram account (November 25, 2025); public descriptions of American Eagle’s “Give Great Jeans” campaign in a U.S. lifestyle report (November 25, 2025); prior coverage of Sydney Sweeney’s “great jeans/genes” ads for American Eagle and reactions from culture commentators (2025); Sweeney’s quoted remarks about the backlash from an interview given while promoting the film “Christy” (2025).
Do you see the Martha Stewart pivot as a thoughtful course correction, or does it feel like safe-but-boring damage control?
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