Tesla Jumps Into American Eagle Ad Controversy With Witty ‘Seatney’ Post

Elon Musk’s company joins the online discourse surrounding the Sydney Sweeney campaign with a clever pun of its own.

UNITED STATES – As the American Eagle ad campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney faces a growing online backlash, Tesla has entered the fray with a humorous jab that has captured social media attention.

The campaign, with its tagline “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” has drawn fire from critics who argue that the play on words—a pun on “genes”—is racially charged and promotes “eugenics movements.” This criticism is amplified by the fact that Sweeney is a blonde, blue-eyed woman, which some social media users have interpreted as a “white purity dog whistle.” The National Institutes of Health (NIH) defines eugenics as “the use of selective breeding to improve the human race,” a concept widely discredited as junk science.

Amid the heated debate, Tesla, under the leadership of Elon Musk, posted a tongue-in-cheek message on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday. Accompanying a video of a robotic arm performing durability testing on a car seat, the company wrote, “Our seats robot also has great jeans.”

Tesla then doubled down on the joke in a follow-up comment, coining the portmanteau “Seatney” to refer to the robot.

The original American Eagle campaign video shows the 27-year-old Euphoria star walking toward a billboard that initially reads “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Genes.” Sweeney then crosses out the word “Genes” and replaces it with “Jeans” before walking away. The campaign is described as a “celebration of what the beloved brand does best: making customers look and feel good in AE Jeans.”

The backlash has been met with a strong defense from some quarters. Media personality Piers Morgan tweeted, “The Sydney Sweeney furor perfectly epitomizes why the woke left is so bonkers. They call everyone a Nazi or white supremacist, even when she’s obviously neither, and they hate women celebrating beauty and sex appeal. It’s why woke is dead — we all just laugh at their idiocy now.”

Despite the controversy, American Eagle’s website highlights a charitable component to the campaign. The limited-edition “Sydney Jean” features a butterfly motif on the back pocket, which the company states represents domestic violence awareness—a cause Sweeney supports. “In support of the cause, 100% of the purchase price from ‘The Sydney Jean’ will be donated to Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit offering free, 24/7, confidential mental health support to anyone in need—just text 741741,” the website notes.

The company’s stock has reportedly seen a temporary dip as the backlash persists. American Eagle has not yet issued an official statement in response to the controversy.