How is this any different than Sports Illustrated doing a swimsuit edition?
Sydney Sweeney is once again ruffling feathers after dropping a racy new ad for Novig, a prediction market that allows sports fans to trade on outcomes in games. It’s basically sports betting, without being called (and regulated like) sports betting.
Anyway, the ad features a nude Sweeney strategically covering her private parts with footballs or various pieces of sports equipment, and as you can imagine it quickly went insanely viral. But just as quickly, female athletes began calling out Sweeney for sexualizing women’s sports.
Ariarne Titmus, a four-time Olympic gold medal swimmer from Australia, called the ad a “kick to the face” to female athletes and sports fans:
“I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this. Not only is it 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. How do we live in a world where monetizing a woman’s body and sexualizing women’s sport is still a thing?”
And former UCLA gymnast Gracie Kramer posted a highlight reel calling out Sweeney:
While Australian water polo Olympian Tilly Kearns was more blunt:
“I absolutely fking hate Sydney Sweeney’s new sports ad.”
Sweeney herself, however, appears to be unphased by the criticism. In a series of posts to her stories, she responded to the accusations that she was “sexualizing” female athletes by sharing a series of photos from ESPN The Magazine’s “Body Issue” showing athletes posing nude:
And another thing the critics seems to be missing: Sweeney isn’t promoting women’s sports or female athletes.
The ad is for a prediction market, which is obviously geared towards men. Roughly 71% of prediction market app users are men, while over two thirds of sports bettors are men.
In a statement on the ad, Sweeney called it a “fun idea” meant to put the focus on sports:
“The campaign was about embracing a fun idea. 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.”
It’s obviously not the first time Sweeney has drawn criticism for her sexualized ads: Last year, clothing outfitter American Eagle called upon the blonde bombshell to be a celebrity spokesperson for their jeans. Because the 27-year-old actress is conventionally attractive, the company decided to use a play on words (jeans and genes) to say that Sweeney has good jeans, which led to ridiculous accusations of promoting white supremacy, eugenics and, wait for it…. Nazism.
Others have also pointed out the reaction to Sweeney’s ad compared to the “body positivity” movement of the past few years, speculating that there wouldn’t be the same outrage if Sweeney weren’t a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, conventionally attractive white woman. And others have speculated that Sweeney is receiving hate because she has refused to speak out on left-leaning political causes or deny speculation that she’s a Republican, leading to questions about whether she would receive the same criticism if she were an outspoken liberal.
Regardless, it seems like the ad is doing what it’s supposed to: I’d never heard of Novig before they brought on Sydney Sweeney, and now they’re one of the biggest stories in the country. That’s why Sweeney gets paid the big bucks, to get people talking.
