Sydney Sweeney sparks fresh controversy over ‘inappropriate’ lingerie ad

Sydney Sweeney has been accused of “sexualising children” after dressing up as characters Kevin McCallister and Cindy Lou Who in a new ad for her lingerie brand Syrn.

Sweeney, 29, launched the campaign for Syrn’s holiday collection over the weekend with a video featuring her modelling several of the lingerie sets.

The clip, which already has over 12 million views on Instagram, starts with Sweeney dressed in a knit sweater and matching socks sitting down to dig into a huge bowl of ice cream, mimicking a scene featuring Kevin from the film Home Alone.

It then cuts to footage of Sweeney dressed in short pyjamas and styled to look like Cindy Lou in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, including her iconic braided updo.

Other clips show Sweeney modelling bras and underwear in Halloween make-up, with lingering close up shots of her bare skin.

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Sweeney did not wear lingerie in any of the clips or photos of her channelling the iconic child characters from Christmas films.

“Welcome to the @syrn holiday shop ♥️🎁 officially open on october 27th,” Sweeney captioned the ad, which quickly copped backlash.

The top comment on the post at the time of writing reads “idk [I don’t know] if sexualising children’s movies is a good move”.

“Hey so those are children! hope this helps,” another commenter wrote, followed by a third who said, “Hey girl, not too late to delete this!!”

Others pointed out that both Kevin and Cindy Lou are supposed to be about eight years old in their respective films and were played by child actors, and questioned why Sweeney would choose to mimic child characters for a lingerie ad.

“That’s just not normal, Cindy is barely 12 years old in the film,” one said.

Macaulay Culkin was just 10 when he filmed the first Home Alone and Taylor Momsen was only six when filming for How the Grinch Stole Christmas started.

“Yes, she [Sweeney] is an adult. Yes, it’s Halloween. Yes, the actress who played Cindy Lou grew up and is attractive now,” one comment read.

“None of that changes that Cindy Lou Who is still a little girl, and a little girl’s character shouldn’t be made into a lingerie costume.”

Fans of Sweeney hit back at the critics, insisting the Syrn campaign wasn’t intended to sexualise children and suggested that Sweeney probably expected the backlash and planned to use it to generate buzz around her brand.

It wouldn’t be the first time the Anyone But You star courted controversy for her own gain.

In September, Sweeney provoked outrage with an X-rated ad for sports trading app Novig wearing little more than some strategically placed footballs.

The ad prompted a wave of criticism from female athletes, who accused Sweeney of sexualising women in sport and undermining the efforts and achievements of decades of female game changers.

“It shows that still, in 2026 the easiest way to get male money and attention is through desirability and the sex appeal of women,” Australian Olympic water polo player Tilly Kearns told nine.com.au at the time.

“Female athletes spend their whole careers trying to flip that equation – to be taken seriously for our skill, expertise, talent, strength. An ad like this undoes it in less than a minute.”

In response to the backlash, Sweeney doubled down.

First, she posted photos of magazine covers featuring prominent athletes posing nude, including Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, (critics pointed out that those images featured actual athletes and are less overtly sexual than Sweeney’s ad).

Then, earlier this month, Sweeney dropped a follow-up to the original Novig ad that had millions of people just as frustrated as the first time around.

Now it appears Sweeney is using the outrage those ads sparked to her advantage and courting controversy once again to promote her lingerie brand.

The actress launched Syrn in January with the tagline “From Syd’s boobs to yours. Lingerie you wear for you by Sydney Sweeney”.