It is one of the questionable perks of Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cwall of sound\u201d approach to communication that the slightly icky moment of connection between the world of Maga and one of Hollywood\u2019s hottest young stars was broadcast live and uncut.<\/p>\n
As the US president boarded Air Force One, a reporter asked whether he had any thoughts on Sydney Sweeney, a \u201cvery hot actress right now\u201d, being a registered Republican<\/a>. Of course he did.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s a registered Republican? Ooh, now I love her ad. Is that right? Is Sydney Sweeney<\/a> \u2026 You\u2019d be surprised at how many people are Republicans. That\u2019s what I wouldn\u2019t have known. But I\u2019m glad you told me that. If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n Sweeney, for the uninitiated, and there can\u2019t be many, first gained prominence for her roles in HBO\u2019s Euphoria and The White Lotus and more recently co-starred in the thriller Echo Valley<\/a> with Julianne Moore.<\/p>\n It has, however, been the 27-year-old\u2019s \u201cmore is best\u201d approach to commercial tie-ups and a tendency for the social media algorithms to promote her that has made her inescapable.<\/p>\n She is everywhere, smiling with a dab of rejuvenating cream on her face, straining to inject cool into clog-shaped black loafers or taking selfies with a dog to promote Samsung flip phones.<\/p>\n She can even be found in your bath tub thanks to a collaboration with a men\u2019s personal care company to create a soap called Sydney\u2019s Bathwater Bliss that contains a small amount of the actual water in which she has washed.<\/p>\n Her latest advertising campaign has led her into more dangerous waters. \u201cGenes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour,\u201d she purrs in an advert for American Eagle denims<\/a>. \u201cMy genes are blue,\u201d she says as the camera lingers on her eyes. The strap line: Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.<\/p>\n Sweeney\u2019s American Eagle ad campaign has become embroiled in controversy. Photograph: David \u2019Dee\u2019 Delgado\/Reuters<\/p>\n The whiff of controversy was inevitably picked up with claims that the ad was elevating the white, blond and blue eyed.<\/p>\n One TikTok reaction video<\/a> that received hundreds of thousands of likes commented \u201cit\u2019s literally giving \u2026 Nazi propaganda\u201d. JD Vance, never one to miss such a moment, decided that this had his name all over it.<\/p>\n He criticised the unhinged Dems and hailed an \u201call-American beautiful woman\u201d, adding: \u201cSo much of the Democrats is oriented around hostility to basic American life.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, amid the extra scrutiny of the woman behind the storm, it emerged that Sweeney had registered as a Republican voter in Florida a few months before Trump won his second US presidency.<\/p>\n As Trump\u2019s delight illustrated, the benefit to the president is clear, said David Cracknell, a former political editor of Rupert Murdoch\u2019s Sunday Times who now runs his own PR company.<\/p>\n There is a long history of politicians chasing the celebrity endorsement, with JFK among the earliest to spot the benefits of having Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr on his side.<\/p>\n Last summer, Harvard University\u2019s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation published research that suggested celebrity voices could be \u201cincredibly powerful\u201d in promoting civic engagement and altering polling numbers. Online voter registration and poll worker volunteer rates were found to increase when a celebrity promoted them.<\/p>\n Celebrity endorsements from the likes of Taylor Swift and Oprah Winfrey did not help Kamala Harris\u2019s cause at the last election but the tacit endorsement of a young woman could be particularly helpful at a time when Trump is under pressure over his past relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>. However, Cracknell said the upside for the celebrity was far less clear.<\/p>\n \u201cIt usually does end in tears when any celebrity gets involved in politics, just look at Kanye West and how his endorsement for Trump was mixed up with his reputational downfall,\u201d said Cracknell. \u201cThen he said later that he felt used by Trump. More fool you for getting involved because the politicians are much better at manipulating the media, they are doing it on a second by second basis, Trump literally.\u201d<\/p>\n Mark Borkowski, whose PR clients have included Michael Jackson, Joan Rivers and Van Morrison, said the golden rule of avoiding political entanglements, particularly in the infancy of a career when widespread goodwill was crucial, was there for a reason.<\/p>\n