• by Tanya Gazdik , 11 hours ago

Actress Sydney Sweeney is once again being taken to task for being too sexy. 

First it was an American Eagle jeans ad in July 2025. Now it’s a campaign for Novig, a peer-to-peer sports prediction market and trading exchange where users trade game outcomes directly with each other instead of betting against a house.

In the one-minute ad, the actress is dressed for about eight seconds.

“The ad begins with the camera trailing Sweeney in a dimly lit space before panning up to her face and zooming out,” according to The New York Times. “As the lights come up, viewers see Sweeney wearing nothing except two footballs held against her chest. In the next shot, she is straddling a basketball net, with only her long blonde hair to hide behind.”

The spot was described as “a kick in the face to every woman” by one Olympic athlete, according to Creative Bloq.

“Thank you for undoing everything women try to build in sports,” one Instagram commenter wrote. "As a former athlete and a woman who has personally experienced sexualized comments, I’m genuinely disgusted and deeply disappointed by this campaign. We’ve spent years fighting to be seen and respected for our talent, strength, and achievements-not reduced to our bodies…" another added.

Gracie Kramer, an American gymnast, posted a highlight reel of her sporting prowess, according to Deadline. “Idk what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sports looks like,” read the caption.

Kramer’s post has been liked nearly a million times, including by American diver Kassidy Cook. 

“Sweeney has not ignored the criticism,” according to The Daily Beast. “The 'Euphoria' star has now shared a series of nude images of major sports stars on her Instagram account, where she has over 25 million followers. The images were pulled from ESPN Magazine’s now-defunct Body Issue series. Since 2009, the magazine has featured some of the world’s most famous athletes posing naked.”

Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky has responded to the uproar, defending its intended message while revealing how heavily the actress influenced its provocative direction.

“Fortinsky addressed the backlash during Front Office Sports’ Asset Class conference after female athletes accused the campaign of sexualizing women and presenting a distorted picture of their relationship with sports,” according to the New York Post. 

“As a company, we’re hugely supportive of women’s sports,” Fortinsky said. “We never intended to portray female sports….Sydney’s an actress. We’re a prediction market that is focused on sports, and that was the story she was communicating.”

The controversy might be the point, Joshua Lewis, a marketing professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, tells The New York Times. 

Novig “is a company with not much market share, and so polarizing people is a reasonable strategy,” Lewis said. ‘They are betting, excuse the pun, that their own audience will not be the same as the people who are most offended by the ad.”

American Eagle sales actually fell slightly after its Sydney Sweeney ad, according to Marketing Daily. The jury is still out on what her effect will be on Novig.