Sydney Sweeney’s latest campaign for sports prediction company Novig has generated millions of views, but the attention has come with a sharp backlash from female athletes who argue that the advertisement sexualizes women rather than representing what women’s sport actually stands for.
Sydney Sweeney’s latest advertising campaign has put her at the centre of another debate over the way women are represented in commercial media.
The actor appears in a largely nude campaign for Novig, a US sports prediction platform, using sporting equipment to cover parts of her body while posing with equipment associated with tennis, baseball, basketball, football and hockey. The campaign repeatedly emphasizes that Novig is focused on “just sports” before turning that message into a joke centred on Sweeney’s appearance.
The advertisement has quickly gone viral. But instead of being welcomed as a celebration of sport, it has prompted criticism from Olympic champions and professional athletes who say the campaign confuses sexual appeal with representation of women in sport.
Why the campaign is facing criticism
The central criticism is relatively straightforward: Sweeney is not a professional athlete, and the advertisement does not showcase the abilities, achievements or experiences of female athletes. Instead, the campaign uses her celebrity and physical appearance to attract attention to a sports-betting product.
That distinction matters at a time when women’s sport is increasingly being promoted on the basis of athletic performance. Female leagues and competitions are attracting larger audiences, sponsorships and investment, while athletes have increasingly become commercial personalities in their own right.
Critics therefore argue that using a non-athlete in a sexualized sports setting sends a message that women’s connection to sport can still be reduced to appearance.
Australian Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus was among the strongest critics. She argued that the campaign was disrespectful to women who dedicate years to training and competing, questioning why the female body continues to be used as a commercial tool in sports advertising.
British sprinter Amy Hunt made the contrast even more directly after finishing fourth in the 200 metres at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest. Addressing the controversy, she pointed to the physical demands of elite athletics, highlighting the strength, training and work required to compete at that level.
The difference between femininity and sexualization
One of the more important arguments emerging from the controversy is that criticism of the campaign is not necessarily an argument against women embracing sexuality or femininity. Female athletes themselves have made that distinction.
British cyclist Sophie Capewell argued that women should be able to be feminine while also being recognized for what they can accomplish as athletes. Boxer Skye Nicolson similarly distinguished between looking attractive while participating in sport and using sexual appeal to sell sport.
That distinction is central to the criticism. A female athlete appearing in a swimsuit, fashion campaign or artistic photoshoot does not automatically undermine her athletic achievements. The issue critics identify with the Novig campaign is that sexuality is effectively the product being used to attract attention to a sports-betting service. The sporting context becomes a marketing prop rather than the subject.
Why the “female sports” argument is difficult to sustain
The campaign becomes particularly difficult to describe as representing women in sport because it contains very little of what actually defines athletic competition. There is no athlete training for competition, no sporting achievement, no demonstration of skill and no discussion of the barriers female athletes face. Instead, sports equipment is used as a visual device around Sweeney’s body.
This is why athletes responding to the advertisement have repeatedly contrasted it with images of themselves competing, training and preparing for events. American gymnast Gracie Kramer helped start a wave of responses with the message that her athletic performance represented what a woman in sport actually looks like. The Australian Institute of Sport subsequently posted its own version featuring female athletes across several disciplines.
The contrast is difficult to miss: one campaign uses sport to frame a celebrity’s appearance, while the responses use athletic performance to define women in sport.
But from a marketing perspective, the campaign worked
There is another side to the controversy. From a pure attention-generation perspective, Novig’s campaign has been highly successful. The advertisement has been viewed more than 30 million times and generated extensive discussion across social media and mainstream media. Novig, a relatively young sports prediction company, has received publicity far beyond what a conventional advertising campaign might have produced.
Sweeney is also more than simply a paid spokesperson. Novig has described her as a strategic partner and equity holder, meaning the success of the company could potentially benefit both sides commercially. That makes the campaign easier to understand from a business perspective. The objective may not have been to celebrate women’s sport in the conventional sense. It was to make Novig impossible to ignore. The controversy has accomplished that.
The problem with confusing visibility with representation
This is ultimately where the campaign’s central weakness lies. A campaign can generate enormous visibility without providing meaningful representation. Novig has succeeded in getting people to talk about its brand. But the question is what the audience is actually remembering.
Advertising experts have questioned whether the campaign will translate its enormous reach into long-term brand recognition and customer loyalty. Some argue that the controversy may overshadow the product itself, while others believe the sheer attention makes the campaign commercially worthwhile. That distinction is particularly relevant for women’s sport.
Women’s athletics has spent years trying to move the conversation away from appearance and toward performance, skill, competition and commercial value. The Novig campaign reverses that equation: the sports setting becomes secondary to the celebrity’s physical appearance.
Sweeney’s response
Following the criticism, Sweeney shared images from ESPN’s well-known Body Issue, featuring athletes including Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey and Megan Rapinoe in nude or minimally clothed photographs. The apparent argument was that athletes themselves have previously used their bodies in athletic or artistic contexts. There is an important difference, however. Those athletes were being photographed as athletes. Their bodies were presented in the context of athletic achievement and physical performance.
The Novig campaign uses Sweeney, who is an actor rather than an athlete, to advertise a betting product. That difference explains why the comparison has not persuaded many critics.
The larger issue for sports advertising
The controversy arrives at an important moment for women’s sport. Women’s competitions are gaining audiences and investment, creating opportunities for athletes to become major commercial figures without relying primarily on traditional stereotypes about female appearance. That makes the choice of advertising strategy increasingly significant.
Novig’s campaign demonstrates that sexualized advertising can still generate enormous attention. But attention alone does not establish that a campaign represents women’s sport.
The strongest criticism of the Sweeney campaign is therefore not that a woman appeared nude or embraced her sexuality. It is that a commercial campaign used the imagery of sport without meaningfully engaging with the women who actually compete in it.
For a company selling sports predictions, that may be an effective publicity strategy. For anyone claiming that the campaign represents female sport, however, the argument is considerably harder to make.