Why Gavin Casalegno's Dunkin' ad has been met with unexpected backlash
In an age where some political commentators never stop belly-aching over ‘wokeness’ – or what’s perceived as over-eager attempts both socially and commercially to mitigate discrimination, expand inclusiveness, and generally be pleasant and respectful to our fellow human beings – it’s become somewhat rare to see the opposite get levelled at a corporate ad campaign.
But as was seen with the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle campaign, which drew a double entendre between ‘jeans’ and ‘genes’ whilst alluding to Sweeney’s supposedly high-calibre genetics, people’s radars for political incorrectness are still finely tuned. In this case, American Eagle was accused by many commentators of advocating for eugenics.
Part of the Nazi's social policies, ‘eugenics’ refers to the debunked pseudoscience that amounts to ‘selective breeding to improve the human race’, per the National Institute of Health (NIH).
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It’s pretty gross stuff that reduces people’s value down to their supposed genetic ‘quality’ whilst placing a premium upon particular traits over others. This might refer to skin colour, eye colour, bone structure, natural build, hairiness or otherwise, and just about anything else that can be defined by your genes.
The Nazis, to whom eugenics was philosophically significant, were particularly adherent to the concept of ‘Aryans’, a pseudoscientific concept of a race of people with blond hair, blue eyes, and an absence of physical deformities and other disabilities.
It’s a concept that remains popular among white supremacist groups and so-called neo-Nazis, with people of that persuasion believing in the ‘purity’ of that genetic makeup.
"Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans," said the American Eagle campaign, with the blonde-haired and blue-eyed Sweeney seen lying down and zipping up her jeans.
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color,” says Sweeney in the ad, before a close-up shot of her saying: “My jeans are blue.”
A follow-up voiceover says: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” This double-entre of ‘jeans’ and ‘genes’ and the ad’s implication that Sweeney has ‘good’ genetics’ have thus caused alarm among people who fear the resurgence of eugenics and adjacent beauty standards.
Hot on the heels of that controversy comes a new Dunkin’ ad starring Gavin Casalegno, the 25-year-old star of The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Posted to Dunkin’s social media channels on 29 July 2025, the ad features Casalegno by a pool and calling himself the ‘King of Summer’.
“This tan? Genetics,” he says. “I just got my color analysis back. Guess what? Golden summer, literally!”
He continues: “I can’t help it. Every time I drink a Dunkin’ Golden Hour Refresher, it’s like the sun just finds me. So if sipping these refreshers makes me the king of summer? Guilty as charged.”
While the intention is no doubt a light-hearted, summery gag about Dunkin’s drinks making you more radiant, the reference to genetics has ruffled feathers in a similar way to the American Eagle campaign.
In short, people are concerned that these corporate campaigns are promoting some kind of ‘superior bloodline’.
“Why are ads so obsessed with genetics all of a sudden?” asked a TikTok user on Dunkin’s video.
“Genuinely, what does a drink have to do with genetics?” asked another pertinent question.
“I’m failing to see the connection from genetics to colour analysis to sunshine to he loves to drink Dunkin drink??” said one bemused Redditor who added: “Wouldn’t shock me if they had AI write it up.”
Some users reckon it’s a lot of fuss over nothing, however.
“This ad is not about eugenics, it’s about the golden summer and the drink,” said one TikTok comment, continuing: “Is it bad timing? Could they have waited? … But there are deadlines they had to meet and they probably wanted to get this out before the end of summer, because he’s in the show The Summer I Turned Pretty.”
Nothing like a deadline as an excuse for accidentally promoting master race-adjacent concepts, eh?
FOODBible has reached out to Dunkin' for comment.
Topics: US Food, TV and Film, Celebrity, Social Media
Rachael Davis