A rumor that circulated online in July 2025 claimed an image showed an in-jest apology letter authored by clothing retailer American Eagle, in response to an alleged controversy over its advertising campaign with actor Sydney Sweeney. The Associated Press reported the ad campaign — which the company named "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans" — sparked a debate about race, Western beauty standards and the backlash to "woke" American politics and culture, with most of the negative reception focusing on videos that used the word "genes" instead of "jeans."
For example, on July 30, an X user posted (archived), "BREAKING: American Eagle has issued a response to the drama surrounding their add [sic] including Sydney Sweeney!" The post received more than 3.9 million views.
(@tan_bruss/X)
The post displayed a photo of Sweeney in an all-denim outfit, showing her superimposed over a computer-generated U.S. flag. The upper-right corner of the image featured the alleged apology letter bearing the American Eagle name and logo. The letter read as follows:
To Whom It May Concern,
We sincerely apologize for featuring Sydney Sweeney in our recent advertisement. In hindsight, we underestimated the combined impact of her blue eyes, blonde hair and general hotness.
Also, we did not realize how big her boobs would be.
Our marketing team has been sent to denim sensitivity training.
Thank you for your feedback.
Please stop emailing us.(We're still trying to recover from the group chat fallout.)
Users also shared the alleged apology letter image on Facebook (archived), Instagram, LinkedIn (archived), Reddit (archived), Threads (archived), TikTok (archived) and X (archived). Some comments indicated they understood someone created the letter as a joke, and that American Eagle did not author its text. Meanwhile, many other users' remarks showed they believed the clothing retailer truly issued the apology — including writing with a comedic angle — as a way of fighting back against negative criticism.
However, no evidence indicated American Eagle issued any apologies for the ad campaign, as of this writing. Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets reporting the supposed apology as fact. Had the company issued such a statement, outlets worldwide would have covered the already-viral matter.
Rather, an online content creator told Snopes by email, in part, that he originated the apology letter image as a "satirical and humorous post."
Snopes contacted representatives for American Eagle by email to ask about the rumored apology, and will update this story if we receive further information.
The origins of the fake apology letter image
The earliest post located in searches appeared on content creator Karim Jovian's Facebook page, as well as his other social media accounts, on July 29. That post (archived) displayed a watermark bearing his name, and showed the same picture of Sweeney, though with the simpler background American Eagle featured in its ad campaign. In short, someone else altered Jovian's earlier version of the apology letter image to add the flag behind Sweeney, which removed his watermark.
(Karim Jovian/Facebook)
A spokesperson for Jovian told Snopes by email, in part, that he created the image as a "satirical and humorous post," and also mentioned it was "clearly intended as a parody":
As the representative for Karim Jovian, I can confirm that the image in question was shared on his public social media page as a satirical and humorous post — clearly intended as a parody. It was not presented as a genuine statement from American Eagle Outfitters, nor was it meant to be interpreted as such.
At this time, we are not making any further statements regarding the authorship or origin of the image beyond what is publicly available. If additional clarification becomes necessary, we may consider further comment through legal counsel.
The edit history of Jovian's original Facebook post showed he, or someone managing his account, updated the popular post with the words "this isn't real" shortly after first adding and then removing a "#satire" label. Both updates occurred after we sent our initial email asking him questions.
(Karim Jovian/Facebook)
American Eagle's 'Great Jeans' ad campaign
On July 23, Women's Wear Daily published an article (archived) announcing American Eagle's new ad campaign with Sweeney. American Eagle Outfitters, owner of the American Eagle brand, also republished (archived) the story on its website.
The article featured an interview with American Eagle Outfitters chief marketing officer Craig Brommers, who said he expected the campaign to "push buttons" and "probably be a little more sensual" than past company ads.
The official American Eagle YouTube channel, as well as other social media platforms, displayed one primary video ad featuring Sweeney.
Another ad showed Sweeney brushing a large outdoor ad, at first with the word "genes" displayed, then later with the term crossed out and replaced by "jeans."
In the days that followed the campaign's launch, online users shared their varying opinions about the ads. The AP reported some critics viewed the wordplay involving "genes" and "jeans" as a nod, either unintentional or intentional, to eugenics — a term Merriam-Webster defines as "the practice or advocacy of controlled selective breeding of human populations (as by sterilization) to improve the populations' genetic composition."
Meanwhile, some users also believed people were reading too much into the campaign's message. One of those people, White House director of communications Steven Cheung, posted on X (archived), in part, that backlash to the ads amounted to "cancel culture run amok." He added, "This warped, moronic, and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024."
A review of American Eagle's initial campaign news release (archived) from July 23 displayed some broken links embedded in the text, possibly removed due to users' negative criticism. In a latter part of the announcement, American Eagle said that, as part of the campaign, it planned to launch a limited-run product named "The Sydney Jean," with the company donating 100% of the purchase price to an organization named Crisis Text Line, in the name of domestic violence awareness.
Also, a LinkedIn post from an American Eagle company executive displaying the words "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Genes" disappeared, indicating they possibly removed the message. An archived page capture displays the post and some of its comments before the executive, or someone else with access to the account, deleted it.
For further reading, a previous fact-check article — also about an alleged ad controversy — examined whether a West Virginia newspaper truly ran a print ad for an HVAC company displaying the words "Never Forget 9/11" and a crying dog — both superimposed over a photo showing the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.