Jeans, soaps and now lingerie: Sydney Sweeney’s ad controversies continue

American actress Sydney Sweeney is no stranger to controversy.

And once again, the 28-year-old star finds herself the centre of attention after pulling a headline-grabbing stunt.

In footage shared on her Instagram page on Jan 27, Sweeney documented herself, along with her production team, scaling the Hollywood sign in darkness to hang lingerie across it, teasing the launch of her own lingerie brand Syrn.

The short video shows Sweeney entering the area of the sign through a gap in the chain-link fence, raising concern that the star might face trespassing charges for her stunt.

The video got over 59,000 likes in two hours. In it, the actress can be seen climbing the sign and can be heard saying “we’re going to get caught at this rate”.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce told media outlet TMZ that it will make a police report against the actress for vandalism and trespassing.

“We are still investigating how and under what authority (if any) the Sweeney production accessed the site of the sign,” the organisation said.

At the end of the video, the star of the film “Christy” can be seen posing gleefully in front of the Hollywood sign, the lingerie visibly hanging from it.

It is unclear when Sweeney’s brand will be launched but business magnate Jeff Bezos and his new wife Lauren Sanchez are reported to back the venture.

TMZ reported that while Sweeney got a permit to film the sign, she was not given permission to touch or climb it. The lingerie was removed after the shoot, but several bras remained, reported TMZ.

The Hollywood sign was built in 1923 in Los Angeles and stands on Mount Lee above Beachwood Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains.

It was donated to the city 21 years later. Now, the public can use designated hiking trails in the area surrounding the sign. In February 2024, a man was arrested for climbing onto the letter “D” of the sign as part of a social media promotion.

Sweeney, however, is not new to controversial marketing.

In July 2024, she starred in an ad for clothing brand American Eagle and sparked outrage over wordplay involving “jeans” and “genes”.

In the ad, Sweeney says “genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour”, before adding: “My jeans are blue.”

A racially-charged debate over the ad’s hint at genetic superiority continued online for months after the ad premiered.

While the ad was dropped, social media was flooded with hundreds of tongue-in-cheek recreations of the ad.

The Euphoria star’s run with controversial ads did not end there. Three months later in October 2024, Sweeney partnered with men’s personal care brand Dr. Squatch to release a body wash called “Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss”.

Sweeney was featured as a “magical body wash genie” that has the ability to grant “every man’s wish”.

With the video going viral on social media platforms, the brand leaned into the stunt by releasing a bar soap it claimed was a “limited-edition soap infused with Sweeney’s actual bathwater”.

Other ingredients in the soap, meant to evoke the smell of Douglas fir trees and moss, are totally typical, such as pine bark extract.

The release drew mixed reviews online from people praising the brand for its marketing creativity, while others expressed disappointment. “Setting us women back 100 years for a body wash is kind of insane,” wrote TikTok user yourgurlharls.

Sweeney’s run with controversial ads may be far from over, but these campaigns have been hard to ignore.