Vice President JD Vance has ignited a fresh wave of public discourse, stepping into the volatile controversy surrounding actress Sydney Sweeney’s recent American Eagle campaign. He sharply criticized what he termed a “Democratic meltdown,” asserting that critics are baselessly labeling individuals as Nazis simply for finding Sweeney attractive, amidst allegations of the ad containing coded messaging.

Speaking on a conservative podcast, Vance delivered a scathing rebuke to those who have accused the American Eagle campaign of subtly promoting white supremacist aesthetics. His comments underscore the increasingly polarized landscape of modern culture wars, where everyday marketing campaigns can quickly become flashpoints for ideological clashes.

Vance’s pointed political advice to Democrats was to “continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive that they’re a Nazi,” suggesting this reflects their actual strategy. He emphasized the absurdity of the situation: a “normal all-American beautiful girl doing a normal jeans ad” causing such widespread outrage and revealing, in his view, a deep-seated “unhinging” among the political left.

The controversy stems from a series of new American Eagle advertisements featuring Sydney Sweeney, designed as a lighthearted back-to-school campaign. These ads playfully incorporate wordplay around “genes” and “jeans,” with one notable instance where a billboard humorously displays “genes” scratched out and replaced with “jeans,” aiming for a quirky and relatable tone.

Despite its innocuous intent, the campaign rapidly escalated into a full-blown ideological confrontation. Critics swiftly accused the fashion brand of peddling a eugenicist subtext and implicitly idealizing whiteness through Sweeney’s prominent Anglo-Saxon features. A widely circulated MSNBC opinion piece, for example, controversially argued that the ad reinforced racial hierarchies by centering a specific beauty standard, fueling the intense social media backlash.

Further elaborating on his critique, JD Vance framed the uproar as symptomatic of a broader “liberal obsession with policing beauty and tradition,” contending that “so much of the Democrats’ identity is oriented around hostility to basic American life.” This perspective highlights the ongoing political commentary surrounding perceived ideological divides in American society.

Vance suggested that Democrats failed to learn a crucial lesson from the November 2024 election, remarking that instead of becoming “less crazy,” their takeaway was to “attack people as Nazis for thinking Sydney Sweeney is beautiful.” He mockingly concluded, “Great strategy, guys,” underscoring his belief in the counterproductive nature of the critics’ approach.

The White House also weighed in, with spokesman Steve Cheung condemning the backlash as “cancel culture run amok.” Cheung publicly stated that this “warped, moronic and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024,” emphasizing public fatigue with such controversies. His post, which included a screenshot of the contentious MSNBC headline, galvanized significant conservative support for both the actress and the American Eagle brand, intensifying the national debate.

The ongoing dispute illustrates a significant intersection of celebrity culture, political discourse, and brand marketing, demonstrating how quickly seemingly innocuous campaigns can become central figures in America’s evolving culture wars, drawing in prominent political figures and media outlets.