Read Time: 3 min 44 sec | Reading Level: 7th Grade

U.S. NEWS

Joke or Woke?

American Eagle’s new denim ad campaign has caused some chafing. But the company’s stock has soared.

The fashion brand ruffled some feathers when it partnered with actress Sydney Sweeney for its fall denim campaign. The ad’s slogan? “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” 

Some folks were not laughing at the genes/jeans play on words. They said that slogan + a blonde-haired, blue-eyed actress = racism or support for eugenics. (Eugenics is the belief that humans can be “improved” by choosing who gets to have babies.) 

Supporters say critics are reading way too much into it, calling the backlash “woke” and “overblown.” American Eagle says the slogan “is and always was about the jeans”—not genetics. 

AE’s stock has noticed the attention. It climbed 23% on Monday after President Trump called the campaign the “hottest ad out there.” Stocks then fell 8% Tuesday.

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ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
The vast majority of news that makes headlines today will not be remembered in 1,000 years. Viewing the events of our lives from an eternal perspective doesn’t mean we stop caring, but it reminds us to keep our focus on the things that last forever: small acts of love for God and our neighbors.

“Love… bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
1 Corinthians 13:6-8 (CSB) (read full passage)

What do I want to make sure my kids know in light of this story?
God’s perspective on beauty.

Ads like this “work” because we—and especially teen and preteen girls—want to be seen as beautiful and cool. Make sure your kids know:

• Trendy clothes and external beauty are fleeting (Proverbs 31:30).

• Our identity and worth are defined by Jesus, not what we look like or what others think (2 Corinthians 5:16-17).

• It’s God who determines what’s good and beautiful, and He thinks women who love Him are as beautiful as it gets (1 Peter 3:3-4). 

• We seek His approval, not the approval of others (Proverbs 29:25).

This is easy to say, but hard for teens to believe in a world that puts images promoting its beauty standards in front of them 24/7. Their hearts (and ours) need to hear the truth about beauty clearly and often.

What might my kids misunderstand about this story?
It should come as no surprise to followers of Jesus that the world would have a different take on what is good and beautiful.

Those who don’t know the Lord don’t have an eternal perspective, so the things of this world seem a lot more important. God’s people don’t stand over the world looking down in judgment (1 Corinthians 5:9-13); we repent of our own sin before the Lord and love our neighbors radically.

Jesus’s friend John puts it like this: “Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters… This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:13-16 CSB).

• Use a whiteboard, chalk on the driveway, or a monster-sized piece of paper to make two lists: what God sees as good and beautiful on one side, and what the world thinks is beautiful on the other side.

• Memorize Psalm 139:14, “I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well” (CSB)

• Pray for your friends, neighbors, and your own heart when you are caught dwelling on temporary things. May God lift our eyes heavenward to love what He loves.

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