Over the past few days, the sport and gambling worlds have collided in an Olympic-size reaction to a new ad launched by online betting platform Novig. You’ve probably seen it…it’s pretty hard to miss.
Instead of the regular roster of well known (mostly male) stars lending their voices or profiles to encourage us to part with our cash, Novig hired Emmy-nominated actor Sydney Sweeney, best known for her work in shows like Euphoria and White Lotus or movies like Anyone but You.
But Sweeney isn’t just the face of the controversial ad. In fact, she’s an equity holder in the company and the CEO of Novig has said publicly that Sweeney helped to shape the company’s creative direction, including for this ad.
Novig – and therefore almost certainly Sweeney – knew their audience when they chose to feature her almost naked, posing with sports equipment in front of her breasts, sitting spread legged over a basketball net, and speaking seductively to camera. Betting platforms like Novig’s cater heavily to male consumers, the exact demographic this ad was designed to entice. That’s why they chose a conventionally attractive, blonde, thin, and large breasted younger woman to sell their message to them.
But it’s important to parse out why people – particularly female athletes – are upset about this ad. It’s not because Sydney Sweeney is barely clothed. Most people don’t actually care much about nudity, especially if they’re athletes.
If you’re a female athlete, like me, you spend a lot of your formative years changing, working out, or showering in communal spaces with a lot of other girls… and sometimes guys. And you don’t think much about it because your body is your engine – it’s an essential tool. You feed it, you push it, you rest it, you care for it, because that’s how you get to be the best in your sport. You don’t spend a ton of time looking at it in the mirror.
I didn’t care how my body looked; I cared how my body worked. And my powerlifter or cyclist or ski racing muscles may not have been the traditional definition of ‘feminine beauty’ but that’s not what I was aiming for anyway. I was aiming for strength, agility, speed and power – my definition of beauty.
The problem with this ad is that it reinforces ridiculous, unrealistic stereotypes about what a female “athlete” should look like, and amplifies the idea that when it comes to women and sports, sex is what sells – not talent. It not only sets back the progress we’ve made in getting men of all ages to recognize, value and support women’s sports, but it tells millions of young girls worldwide that their success in sports is a correlation to what their body looks like, not what it can do.
That’s also why we’ve seen female Olympians and athletes across the internet sharing a strong message back: this is what women in sports look like.
It’s worth noting that Sweeney deliberately allowed herself to be objectified in this hyper-sexualized ad, which is of course, her choice. But, in choosing to do so, she put the blood, sweat and tears of generations of women who fought for real, substantive sports recognition beneath her own quest for personal gain.
And sure, did the ad work? Yeah, we’re all talking about it. But, we’re all going to feel the burn because of it.
Alexandra Schella
