Sydney Sweeney Faces Backlash Over ‘Disgusting’ Lingerie Ads
The 29-year-old actress posed as beloved children’s characters to market her bras and underwear.
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Sydney Sweeney is under fire for her latest lingerie ads, and the nudity isn’t the most controversial part this time.
The 29-year-old Euphoria actress posted an Instagram video on Oct. 21 advertising her underwear line Syrn’s upcoming holiday shop.
In the 30-second video, Sweeney dressed up as beloved Christmas and Halloween film figures. But some commenters slammed Sweeney’s character choices, claiming she was “disgusting” for “sexualizing child characters.”
In her ad, Sydney Sweeney appears dressed up as Cindy Lou Who, from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss.
Instagram/Syrn
The clip starts with Sweeney dressed as Kevin McCallister, the child trickster portrayed by Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone, eating ice cream from a large bowl and turning on the TV in a white sweater and socks.
Sweeney then appears on the television in the ad, where she is dressed up as Cindy Lou Who from Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Her hair is braided and pinned high above her head, and she wears the character’s fuzzy cape with shorts and a cleavage-baring top.
Still in the same hairstyle, she switches to a long-sleeved checkered pajama set.
Sydney Sweeney wore multiple different outfits with Cindy Lou Who's signature hairstyle.
Instagram/Syrn
Then the video cuts to Sweeney in multiple lace underwear sets, channeling characters from The Corpse Bride and White Christmas.
The ad also featured Sydney Sweeney posing in several different lingerie sets.
Instagram/Syrn
The camera cuts back and forth between Sweeney sitting on a chair, watching excitedly, and posing in underwear on the TV.
One of Sydney Sweeney's looks featured blue feather fans, which some fans thought were a nod to the 1954 movie “White Christmas.”
Instagram/Syrn
Comments filled with admirers—and critics.
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“Cindy Lou is a child come on,” one fan wrote with a crying emoji. Another said, “Hey so those are children!”
Some critics argued that Sydney Sweeney’s ad sexualized beloved children’s classics.
Instagram/Syrn
Culkin, who portrayed McCallister in the 1990 holiday comedy, was nine years old while filming, and Taylor Momsen was just seven when she played Cindy Lou Who in the 2000 live-action adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s world-famous Christmas tale.
Taylor Momsen listening to Jim Carrey in a scene from the film 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas', 2000.
Archive Photos/Getty Images
Other commenters defended Sweeney, writing that while she used the children’s movie characters to advertise lingerie, she wasn’t wearing lingerie while playing them.
Macaulay Culkin at the American Comedy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1991. The child actor portrayed Kevin McCallister in "Home Alone" when he was 9.
Barry King/WireImage
On her brand’s Instagram, Sweeney’s team also posted campaign photos of her channeling the holiday characters to better show the looks.
Sydney Sweeney’s first Novig ad sparked widespread controversy.
Novig
Sweeney has been criticized for many of her ads.
Her latest controversy had to do with her ads for sports trading app Novig, in which she posed nude with strategically placed sports equipment.
Critics thought the campaign sexualized women’s sports, but Sweeney doubled down with another topless ad for the same brand.
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