The reaction of the far left to the infamous Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad campaign was, to say the least, absurd. And I think leftists know it, too. Because they’re not desperately trying to rewrite history and claim they were never bothered by the ad in the first place, and the whole thing was a right-wing fabrication.
This attempt at rewriting history comes courtesy of the New York Times, and it’s a perfect example of Orwellian revisionist history. The article begins by recounting conservatives mocking the left’s reaction to the ad campaign, insisting that they “claimed that progressives were up in arms over the intentional double-entendre with the word ‘genes,’ suggesting it was winking at eugenics or white supremacy,” before declaring definitively that “In reality, most progressives weren’t worked up much at all.”
Here’s what the New York Times claims:
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.
The article includes a chart that shows that while the campaign began on July 23, the social media reaction to the ad campaign did not surge until days later, peaking on July 30. To them, this is proof that “Left-leaning criticism of the campaign rose considerably after the topic gained traction on the right.”
Except that’s not true.
The truth is starkly different from the paper’s claims. The left weren’t just mildly annoyed or quietly disapproving; their reaction was explosive, full-throated, and furious, and it was left-wing media that amplified and legitimized the outrage.
The left-wing rag Salon wrote about the campaign on July 27.
American Eagle’s new fall campaign starring Sydney Sweeney is under fire—not for the jeans, but for the tagline: “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.”
The phrase, used in bold on billboards in Times Square and Las Vegas, was designed as a denim pun. But online, many saw something else: “great genes,” a phrase historically used to celebrate whiteness, thinness and attractiveness. This makes this campaign seem to be a tone-deaf marketing move.
A day later, MSNBC followed suit.
The backlash has been swift and fierce, and some of it, at least, if you ask me, is fair. The internet has been quick to condemn the advertisement as noninclusive at best and as overtly promoting “white supremacy” and “Nazi propaganda” at worst. These critics point to the copy and the implication of calling a white person superior because of their genes.
According to left-wing activist Matthew Sheffield, Libs of TikTok and Charlie Kirk are to blame for amplifying faux outrage about the American Eagle ad campaign featuring Sweeney.
🧵Right-wing extremists like Libs of Tiktok and Charlie Kirk totally concocted the Sydney Sweeney “outrage.”
The supposed left-wing outrage at Sweeney never happened. Republicans made it up.
Republicans have been inventing people to rage against for decades… pic.twitter.com/NjisbRhVEw
— Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) August 7, 2025
The big problem with his claim is that Libs of TikTok first mentioned the ad campaign hours after Salon had already written about it.
Sydney Sweeney being in an American Eagle ad is “fascist propaganda” according to the triggered tiktok libs pic.twitter.com/KtIafvaGvK
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 28, 2025
As for Kirk, he first mentioned a day later, as the story was already peaking.
So wait…
Leftwingers are claiming that Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ads are “nazi propaganda” while simultaneously wondering why young men loathe them?
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 29, 2025
So the two key conservative culprits the left blames for amplifying the Sweeney ad campaign outrage didn’t even start talking about it until after both Salon and MSNBC had already been talking about it.
The left-wing media didn’t just notice the outrage; it legitimized it, amplified it, and blasted it into the mainstream. Leftists didn’t roll their eyes or dismiss it; they doubled down. And now that the outrage has become politically inconvenient, they are gaslighting you. The left is rewriting the narrative to suggest that it never really cared in the first place. But the receipts tell a different story: this wasn’t a handful of fringe voices that conservatives were amplifying. This was a wave of leftist outrage, with left-wing media fueling and promoting it, that turned into a full-scale campaign to cancel Sydney Sweeney and American Eagle.
It’s a textbook example of how leftists operate. When the backlash becomes politically toxic, they don’t own up to it; they scramble to backtrack, rewrite history, and pretend it never happened.
The left’s outrage over the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad was real—and explosive. But now, the New York Times wants you to believe it was a “right-wing fabrication.” At PJ Media, we expose these Orwellian rewrites that the mainstream media won’t touch. Join PJ Media VIP today and get 60% off with the code FIGHT. Don’t wait — stand with the truth and fight back against the left’s lies.
