Sydney Sweeney says the critics of her bathwater soap were “mainly the girls.”
The actress took part in an advertising campaign with Dr. Squatch earlier this year in which the company sold a limited-edition soap infused with her bathwater.
Called Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss, the product was inspired by her ad for Dr. Squatch Natural Body Wash, where she promoted the body wash while bathing in a tub filled with bubbles.
Sweeney recently spoke to The Wall Street Journal about whether she tracks the public’s perception of the things she is a part of.
“It’s important to have a finger on the pulse of what people are saying, because everything is a conversation with the audience,” Sweeney said.
She also spoke about the backlash against Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss.
“It was mainly the girls making comments about it, which I thought was really interesting,” Sweeney said. “They all loved the idea of Jacob Elordi’s bathwater.”
This is a reference to the viral candle that was branded Jacob Elordi’s Bathwater after a scene in his film Saltburn caused a social media stir.
Sweeney also received backlash this summer over an ad campaign she participated in with American Eagle. The ads were built around the slogan, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” which was a riff on “great genes.”
In one of the ads, Sweeney says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.”
This led to some critics of the campaign to claim it promotes eugenics, a “scientifically inaccurate theory that humans can be improved through selective breeding of populations,” according to the National Human Genome Research Institute.
American Eagle released a statement about the ad’s controversy on Aug. 1.
“‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story,” the company said. “We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”
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