US Coffee and doughnut brand, Dunkin’ Doughnuts, is the latest brand to be swept into a growing online backlash after releasing a seemingly light-hearted summer ad featuring The Summer I Turned Pretty actor Gavin Casalegno, and the use of what is becoming a very loaded word: “genetics.”
The 30-second spot, posted across Dunkin’s social media channels earlier this week, promotes the chain’s new Golden Hour Refresher, a tropical lemonade drink. In the ad, Casalegno screams summer, dressed in a casual linen top and striped shorts that wouldn’t be out of place on his popular Prime Video series.
“Look, I didn’t ask to be the king of summer, it just kinda happened. This tan? Genetics.”
Seemingly set at the show’s iconic Cousins Beach House and with a touch of his character Jeremiah’s smug attitude, Casalegno claims that he just “can’t help it”.
“Every time I drink a 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,” he says before sipping on the drink and leaning back into a pool chair.
While some viewers saw it as an innocuous seasonal ad leaning into Gen Z humour and “thirst-trap” aesthetics, others quickly called out the ad’s reference to genetics as racially tone-deaf and potentially exclusionary.
Casalegno’s personal history has only added fuel to the fire. The 24-year-old actor, beloved for his role as bisexual heartthrob Jeremiah Fisher, has faced past controversy for liking social media posts considered anti-vaccine, anti-feminist and transphobic.
He’s also shown support for Jordan Peterson and posted in favour of Israel during its war with Hamas, a stance that remains deeply divisive globally. His father’s online activity, including follows of far-right influencers like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andrew Tate, has further intensified scrutiny.
Social Media users were quick to draw connections between the spot and the infamous Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad that went viral for all the wrong reasons this week.
One TikTok user asked, “Why are ads so obsessed with genetics all of a sudden?” while another wrote, “What in the Sydney Sweeney did I just watch?”
The comparisons to Sweeney’s controversial American Eagle ad were immediate. Her denim campaign, where she cheekily played on the double meaning of “jeans” and “genes”, has been accused by some of promoting eugenicist ideals, despite being framed around a typical pun.
The ad has been slated for two reasons. Firstly, it shows Sweeney in sexually suggestive positions. Many have pointed out how incongruous this is with the line of jeans being used to raise money for a charity that provides mental health support to victims of domestic abuse.
Perhaps the more pointed criticism is that the ads are allegedly “racist, sexist, and eugenics-coded”, using language that celebrates Sweeney’s blue eyes and how it is the result of good jeans.
Critics argue that the seemingly innocent invocation of “genetics” in both ads subtly reinforces ideas around idealised beauty and inherited superiority, especially when paired with white, conventionally attractive talent.
Global CMO advisor and inclusive marketing strategist Lola Bakare, and a former Cairns Crocodiles keynote speaker, took aim at the Sweeney ad.
“Did we all forget about WWII. We all get the word play around jeans/genes…I’m surprised to see so many of my colleagues celebrating this without seeing the extremely harmful connotations.
“If Sydney Sweeney has good genes in Magamerica 2025…tell me, pray tell Craig Brommers – who has bad genes? Everyone who doesn’t shop at American Eagle Outfitters Inc.?…or everyone who doesn’t look like Sydney Sweeney?”
But others say the outrage is manufactured and indicative of online hypersensitivity. The reaction to Dunkin’s ad, in particular, has drawn ridicule across the online world.
“Oh boy, libs are about to lose their minds again,” one X user posted sarcastically. “Whatever you do, do not share it—because you will trigger a full-blown liberal meltdown”.
Dunkin’ has remained silent on the controversy, opting to let the conversation play out online. For better or worse, the ad has now done what many summer campaigns dream of: it got people talking.
