Sydney Sweeney Sports Ad Generates Controversy From Female Athletes

Another commercial starring actress Sydney Sweeney has gone viral online — and generated contoversy in the process.

This time, the product the Euphoria and Anyone But You star is hawking is Novig, a prediction market for sports trading. In the ad, Sweeney appears with little (or no) clothing while promoting the new platform for trading on sports.

The conceit of this commercial is that Novig is “just sports,” so the ad features Sweeney and “just sports” — i.e. no clothing.

“No betting on wars or deaths, and no politics,” Sweeney says (with a straight face) while wearing nothing but a pair of soccer cleats, with a ball balanced between her feet.

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Since the ad was posted on September 8, it’s generated plenty of views and loads of backlash, much of it from female athletes rejecting its objectificaton of women.

In a post to her Instagram story, Australian Olympian Ariarne Titmus wrote “I can't describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” adding “Not only is it a kick in the face to every woman who had dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every women who enjoys sports for what it really is — teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellent, unity...”

On her own Instagram account, boxing champion Skye Nicolson wrote “Giving the ad campaign exactly what they wanted, but honestly these companies need to do better. Stop sexualising women in #sport.”

Sweeney is no stranger to controversial ads. In 2025, she appeared in a commercial for American Eagle that sparked major blowback because of its tagline “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” a phrase that some claimed was an invocation of white supremacy. (Sweeney’s response to that criticism: “I knew at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was great jeans.”)

These athletes have a point, but I doubt Novig particularly cares. As of this writing, the ad has received 37.5 million views on X alone. And every time another athlete (rightfully) criticizes it, more people seek out the original ad to see what all the fuss is about. Such is life in our social media hellscape.

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