Sydney Sweeney’s latest advertising campaign for sports prediction platform Novig has sparked criticism from female athletes, with several Olympic competitors accusing the campaign of contributing to the sexualisation of women’s sport.
The advertisement features Sweeney posing nude or partially nude alongside equipment associated with different sports, including a football, basketball hoop, hockey gear and a pool table. The campaign promotes Novig as a prediction platform focused exclusively on sports, rather than subjects such as politics, war or death.
Sweeney addresses viewers in the campaign and challenges them to prove their knowledge of sport, while the imagery places her body prominently alongside the sporting equipment.
The campaign has drawn particular criticism from female athletes who argue that women in sport have spent years trying to shift attention away from their appearance and towards their performances.
Australian Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus has criticised the campaign, while water polo player Tilly Kearns and swimmer Lani Pallister have also spoken out against it.
For its critics, the issue is not simply whether Sweeney chose to participate in the campaign. They argue that presenting a female actor in a sexualised setting while using sports imagery reinforces an old pattern in which women’s bodies become part of the marketing of sport rather than their achievements.
Some athletes and people working in the sports industry have also warned that this type of advertising can make it harder for women to be taken seriously in a traditionally male-dominated environment and could discourage younger women from pursuing careers in sport.
Others have argued that the controversy reflects a broader problem with the way women’s sport is marketed, rather than being solely about Sweeney or her decision to appear in the campaign.
Sweeney defends the concept
Sweeney has defended the advertisement, describing the campaign as an attempt to turn an entertaining idea into something playful and attention-grabbing.
Rather than responding directly to the criticism about sexualisation, she has emphasised the campaign’s intention to put the focus on sport while using humour and confidence to attract attention.
The actor’s relationship with Novig also sets the campaign apart from a conventional celebrity endorsement.
Sweeney is not simply the face of the advertisement. She is also a strategic partner and shareholder in the company, meaning she has a direct financial interest in the business and its success.
Novig launched nationwide operations in the United States last month and markets itself as a prediction market dedicated to sporting events.
The debate goes beyond Sweeney
The controversy has also reopened a broader debate about personal choice, advertising and the representation of women in sport.
Supporters of Sweeney argue that she is an adult who has the right to decide how she presents her body and that she willingly participated in the campaign. Critics counter that individual choice does not necessarily resolve questions about the wider commercial use of women’s bodies in advertising.
The campaign has also attracted attention because of Sweeney’s previous controversial advertising work. Last year, she appeared in an American Eagle campaign that triggered a debate over eugenics because of its use of language centred on the word “genes.”
The Novig campaign adds another layer to that discussion by combining sexualised imagery with sports prediction and betting culture.
With Sweeney also holding a financial stake in Novig, the advertisement is more than a standard celebrity-brand collaboration. It has become part of a wider argument over how women, sport and sexuality are used to attract audiences — and where the line should be drawn between self-expression, marketing and the continued sexualisation of women in sport.
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