The best season is finally here ❄️🎄♥️… Christmas controversy season! Sydney Sweeney is once again at the centre of online controversy, this time over a new holiday campaign for her own lingerie brand, Syrn. A 30-second Instagram clip was recently shared on both her own Instagram and Syrn’s and was meant to promote the upcoming holiday shop launch.It was intended to evoke nostalgia and feature some revealing looks. The Christmas-themed reel drew strong criticism for featuring lingerie recreations of child characters from classic Christmas films.
In the reel, Sydney Sweeney first recreates Kevin McCallister from ‘Home Alone’ as she lounges in pyjamas and eats ice cream.
Macaulay Culkin was only nine during filming.
Then she appears as Cindy Lou Who from ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas ’, wearing shorts, plaid nightwear and a fur-trimmed cape, while carrying presents or stringing lights. Taylor Momsen was around seven while filming. Other segments are inspired by The Corpse Bride, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and White Christmas, in more overt lingerie, even including lace sets.
While some were “obsessed with this drop” and “love how she’s rage baiting everyone” Many more seem to be concerned with a 28-year-old dressing up as suggestive versions of children’s movies. With negative comments such as “Hey girl, not too late to delete this!! Hope this helps”, “Are you okay? Like seriously” and “Dressing up as a child character in lingerie is definitely a choice, Syd!”
Some were more moderate in the criticisms, with comments such as
“Yes, She’s an adult. Yes, it’s Halloween. Yes, the actress who played Cindy Lou grew up and is attractive now. None of that changes the fact that Cindy Lou, a little girl, and a little girl’s character shouldn’t be made into a lingerie costume.”
The idea of giving famous characters an “adult makeover” is hardly new. Halloween and cosplay culture have long embraced reinterpretations of well-known figures, with everything from Disney characters to comic-book heroes regularly getting more glamorous, fashionable or revealing reworks. While these costumes are often seen as part of the fun, they’ve also sparked controversy over the years when characters known for being children or teenagers are reimagined in overtly adult ways. As a result, discussions about where creativity ends and over-sexualisation begins have become a recurring part of pop-culture conversations every Halloween season. The difference here is that this is a child costume being sold as an adult product.
Sryn, which Sweeney launched earlier in 2026 as a sole founder, wants to push for “confidence without pressure”
Sweeney has described it as lingerie that “understands women instead of talking at them”.
Even the launch of the brand was contriversial as she climbed the HOLLYWOOD sign for a promo.
The holiday reel was framed as a playful, nostalgic promo for the October opening. The drama around overly sexualising herself and her brand is not an isolated incident. She faced repeated scrutiny over her near-nude campaign for the sports prediction market Noig under the “just sports” banner. She posed, covering herself with only American footballs, basketballs, hockey pads, and other sports gear while pitching sports betting.
Many Female athletes pushed back hard. Australian Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus called it a “kick in the face” to women who dedicate their lives to the sport, and British sprinter Amy Hunt posted “Sydney Sweeney, this is what a women in sport look like”, as many others shared montages of real female athletes in action, arguing the ad sexualizes and sets back women’s sports.
Even before that, during her American Eagle “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” ad.
The ad was argued to use genes/jeans wordplay to not only cater to the male gaze but also promote negative racial stereotypes.
Despite the negative feedback, the campaign was still commercially successful. So her team likely recognises now what works in ads. To generate enormous visibility, debate and great commercial results, they blend in sexualisation and hints of regressive messaging that could be interpreted either as good or bad (negative attention or body-positive fun), thus creating a conversation that only feeds the algorithm.
So whether the Syrn holiday video is clever nostalgia, tone-deaf, or strategic provocation depends on your perspective. Still, it puts Sydney Sweeney and her brand back in the internet spotlight.
