Blue-eyed 'gene genie' Sweeney

SYDNEY Sweeney is the face and body of a new ad campaign selling denim. It employs a pretty basic joke at its heart: a punning play on the word jeans, as in: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” (genes, geddit?).

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There’s a secondary, even weaker gag where Sydney tells us: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour... my genes are blue” (as in blue denim... c'mon, keep up at the back!).

So far, so harmless, unless you happen to think puns are the lowest form of wit. But a super-woke cadre in the US, where denim firm American Eagle has based its campaign, has taken huge offence at it. Why? Because it “represents modern-day Nazi propaganda”.