Women athletes condemn 'sexualised' Sydney Sweeney commercial
Paris (France) (AFP) – Actor Sydney Sweeney has been condemned by leading women athletes for a sports betting advert in which the American appears in various states of undress
Sweeney, who starred in TV series "Euphoria", has been accused of sexualising women's sport after posing with sports equipment in the commercial for US company Novig, which allows users to predict the outcome of sports matches. The 29-year-old has an equity stake in the firm.
Four-time Olympic gold medallist swimmer Ariarne Titmus said she thought the marketing tactic belonged to the past.
"I can't describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this," Titmus wrote on Instagram.
"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..."
"How do we live in a world where monetising a women's body and sexualising women's sport is still a thing?" the Australian added.
Several leading track and field athletes competing at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest last weekend expressed their consternation at Sweeney's commercial, saying it was a misleading representation of how women in sport looked.
Having finished fourth behind US sprinter Melissa Jefferson-Wooden's winning time of 21.47sec in the 200 metres, the fourth fastest ever, British athlete Amy Hunt said in a BBC TV interview: "Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like. 21.4. Muscles. Hard work, blood, sweat, tears."
She added: "When you're a woman in sport, it's not pretty. It's not glamorous. It's not sexy all the time, definitely."
Many athletes have posted videos of themselves, grouped around the message "this is what sport looks like".
US gymnast Gracie Kramer captioned her post, featuring her performing gymnastic routines and training in a variety of other sports, with the message: "idk what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sport looks like."
The outrage around the campaign echoes that provoked by American Eagle's "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans" campaign in 2025.
The campaign attracted heavy criticism for appearing to employ the language of eugenics, with Sweeney saying in a video that has since been deleted: "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour. My jeans are blue."
Sweeney later acknowledged that by failing to comment on the furore, it had only "widened the divide".
She added: "I was honestly surprised by the reaction. I'm against hate and divisiveness."
19 replies
ofc Sweeney sold out to big gambling
The rage reactions to it are stupid. Nowhere in the ad was she "sexualizing women's sports".
It's a sports gambling app ad, using sex to sell to men, who are the VAST majority of sports bettors. It has virtually nothing to do with women's sports at all.
It's a cringey ad aimed at the lowest common denominator male, but that's about it.
I'm wondering if they're astroturfing the drama
Guarantee she saw all the publicity her American Eagle ad got and they’re trying to milk this similarly.
I think the drama is real, but baited. And people are playing right into it.
Exactly. Their demographic are the people who are constantly sexualizing women.
Wish Sweeney would grow up and make some better decisions soon, though.
Her entire career is sexualizing herself and using her sex appeal. I don’t think she’s gonna change that until she stops making millions of dollars from it.
Nor do I think using sex to sell is gonna change any time soon. That’s not the worst part of it though. It’s just a bad ad. It’s extremely low effort and doesn’t even have any imagination. It’s just “sex sex sex buy our stuff sex sex sex”.
A “prediction market” app for sports called No…vig?
So blatant sports betting without any of that pesky regulation.
Only place I could find it was on Reddit (google video search is broken) https://www.reddit.com/r/MoralityScaling/comments/1wc2gje/morality_of_sydney_sweeneys_sexualized_new/
So it's for gambling which I hate and it's clearly going for the lowest demographic here (at one time, she literally just repeats the word sport about 12 times).
It's pathetic but I don't know what else people are expecting out of her or sports gambling at this point. It kind of seems on par with her. At this point, I'm fairly certain she just sees the rage as advertisement.
All I could think of when she kept saying "sports"
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=QjL7D33xpS4
"I'm against hate and divisiveness" really sounds like a code phrase.
I think the BEST resource is just ignore that hoe
i've been looking into this and it turns out that sidney sweeney is attractive and has large tits. additional research may yield further insights as initial results are promising
I truly do not understand the obsession with Sydney Sweeney. She has big tits but so do millions of other women, hers are not special. And she is ugly. Why are people obsessing with her?
Or is it that she is willing to show her tits so people take what they can?
Rich people shilling for (anything) gambling is offensive. Just sell the nudes themselves like honest business.
Sydney Sweeney condemned by other women for "sexualization"? Must be a day that ends in "y".
I'm not really into pro sports beyond the odd community bandwagon, and I loathe gambling. I do however like pretty women like Sweeney naked, or mostly so. It's the only redeemable part of this fake controversy.
If anybody remembers Madonna in the 90s, Sweeney is doing that act.
If so, then she's doing a rather poor imitation of it. Madonna at least had some redeeming qualities.
I thought you couldn't bring yourself to care about this?