Sydney Sweeney just cannot seem to stay out of the headlines. Barely a year removed from the “great jeans” firestorm, the actress has landed herself in the middle of another advertising controversy, and this one has drawn criticism from just about every corner.
There’s an old marketing cliché that sex sells, and Sweeney seems determined to prove it right at every possible turn, this time by stripping down almost entirely for a sports-prediction platform’s launch campaign.
The ad exploded online within days, racking up tens of millions of views, but not all of that attention has been flattering. A growing list of professional female athletes says the campaign does real damage to the very thing it claims to celebrate: women in sport. Here’s what the ad actually is, why it’s landed so badly, and what athletes are saying about it.
What Is This Sydney Sweeney Ad?
The ad in question is the debut national campaign for Novig, a US sports-prediction market that launched its first national campaign, Just Sports, on September 9, 2026, with Sweeney as the face of the brand. The ad opens with a nude Sweeney asking the camera whether viewers think they know sports, daring them to prove it, while she holds two footballs in front of her chest.
Across the clip, she appears either fully nude or wearing only underwear, with items like footballs, a tennis racket, a baseball bat, and a basketball covering the rest of her body. In one widely shared shot, she’s shown sitting completely naked on top of a basketball hoop.
It is also worth paying attention to what Novig actually does: sports betting and prediction trading. Platforms like it have been called out in several countries for how addictive they can be.
Sweeney isn’t simply a paid spokesperson here either, but someone with a real financial stake in the company. As per reports, she is a strategic partner and equity holder in the brand. Sweeney also explained the purpose of the ad on the company blog, saying, “The concept is simple: cut through the noise and put the focus entirely on sports. The campaign brings that idea to life with confidence, humor and a playful edge.”
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Why Are People Angry?
If you have been online in the past few days, there is no way you haven’t come across a post or video bashing the ad and everything it seems to be promoting. Online and offline spaces are already struggling with a steady drip of misogynistic content, violence against women, and ‘trad wife’ videos nudging young girls back into traditional roles.
Against that backdrop, this ad has plenty of people worried.
What has probably irked people most is that the nudity in the ad is not framed as empowering or artistic in any way. It seems designed purely to titillate, built around a conventionally attractive woman who also fits the beauty ideal a resurgent white supremacist strain in the US keeps pushing: white, blonde, and blue-eyed.
While some are seeing the ad as nothing but a clickbait ad meant for straight men, that is once more objectifying a woman, there are others who feel that the campaign reduces female athleticism to a body on display, treating a football or a basketball as little more than a lifestyle prop.
Some critics also argued the ad had nothing meaningful to do with sports strategy or skill, with the sporting equipment functioning as little more than a modesty prop, just a workaround to get a nude ad past platform content rules while still branding it as “sports” marketing.
Several athletes have also come forward to voice their disapproval of the ad. Australian surfer Felicity Palmateer, speaking with CNN, said, “Just absolute utter disbelief, incredibly disappointing, like, how far you can put women’s sports backwards in the space of a 42-second commercial.”
She added that the campaign “is very damaging, especially for young females getting into sport, for females in sport, for females in general, just hypersexualised content.”
Four-time Olympic gold medalist and retired Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus also posted about it on her Instagram Stories, writing, “I wasn’t going to share this as I didn’t want to give this any more attention. But I can’t keep my mouth shut… I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this.”
Titmus added, “Not only is this a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every woman who enjoys sports for what it really is — teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, unity … the list goes on.”
Australian boxer Skye Nicholson also weighed in with a social media video, writing, “Giving the ad campaign exactly what they wanted, but honestly these companies need to do better… Stop sexualising women in #sport.”
Retired US gymnast Gracie Kramer called the ad “infuriating” in her Instagram Stories, writing, “I’ve spent my entire life competing in a sport where female athletes have been oversexualized, reduced to our bodies, and forced to fight to be taken seriously for what we can actually do.”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Variety, The Indian Express, The Guardian
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Sydney Sweeney, Sydney Sweeney ad, Sydney Sweeney sports ad, Sydney Sweeney naked sports ad, Sydney Sweeney sports betting ad, Sydney Sweeney controversy, sports betting ad, athletes, american athletes, Sydney Sweeney backlash, Sydney Sweeney novig ad
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