How sports betting platform Novig is trolling viewers with its Sydney Sweeney ads
Novig’s first national ad campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney nude and holding strategically placed sporting equipment, launched Sept. 9.
The advertisement claims that sports prediction app Novig “is just sports.”
The nudity, “over-the-top” sexuality, and objectification of the actress in the ad campaign, however, makes it about much more, said Northeastern University psychology and media experts.
“Maybe 15, 20 years ago, someone putting out an ad like this was doing it for the sole reason of thinking ‘she is attractive, that’s going to make people want this service,’” said Stephen Warren, associate teaching professor of communication studies at Northeastern who specializes in sports communication and media psychology.
But in this campaign, going viral for being edgy seems to have been the company’s main goal, Warren said, noting that he and everyone he had talked to about the ad campaign had not heard about it from seeing it on a billboards or in print, but from people on social media “saying, ‘hey, look at how crazy this ad is.’”
“Now, they’re doing it almost like an instigating troll sort of thing,” Warren said.
Novig is a sports–prediction market and trading app where users can “trade” or make bets on sports outcomes directly against each other instead of betting against a traditional bookmaker.
Its first national ad campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney nude and holding strategically placed sporting equipment, launched Sept. 9.
“The concept is simple: cut through the noise and put the focus entirely on sports,” Sweeney, a strategic partner and equity holder said in a Novig press release announcing what the company described as a “bold” campaign.
“The campaign brings that idea to life with confidence, humor and a playful edge,” the press release said.
Many on social media, in traditional media outlets, among female athletes and in the marketing world disagreed.
“Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like,” British sprinter Amy Hunt said to BBC Sport after a race this weekend. Hunt then cited her time in the race, “muscles, hard work, sweat, blood, (and) tears.”
Warren and Rachel Rodgers, associate professor of applied psychology at Northeastern, objected to several aspects of the ads, including its nudity, Sweeney’s provocative posing “for the male gaze,” the sultry tone of Sweeney’s voiceover in online versions of the ads.
The sports context only adds to the controversy, the experts said.
“One of the things that I was so upset by here is the really jarring contrast between it being about sports – which is all about moving and feeling that joy and the mastery of being able to, say, kick a ball really hard – and the fact that the person in the picture is there for entirely ornamental purposes and is being offered somewhat as a reward,” said Rodgers, who focuses on socio-cultural influences on body image and eating concerns.
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For example, Rodgers noted that the sports equipment is not used for its intended purpose, suggesting it “doesn’t belong to the girls team.”
Instead, “the suggestion is very much that she’s got hold of the boys’ plaything in order to conceal herself,” Rodgers said.
Warren agreed, saying the ad was “really playing into those traditional sexual stereotypes for sports.”
Warren said that sports have historically “subtly and not subtly” perpetuated traditional gender stereotypes – think being told to ‘man-up’ and play through pain, Warren noted.
But rather than counteract those stereotypes, the ad doubled down.
Novig could have chosen a female athlete to be a spokesperson and show her playing her sport or wearing her uniform, Warren said, adding that “both of those would relate a lot more to sports betting than a naked blonde bombshell.”
In response to the backlash, on Monday Sweeney posted an Instagram story with a nude image of herself from the ad alongside several ESPN photoshoots for its annual “The Body Issue,” which has featured famous athletes over the years posing without clothes, including Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, Rob Gronkowski, and Jason Kelce. Warren described Sweeney’s reaction as “disingenuous.”
Sweeney also provoked controversy in an American Eagle ad for “good jeans,” Warren noted, making him even more skeptical of Novig’s motivation in using the actress for its campaign.
“The main difference there is that instead of celebrating the athlete’s body, [the Novig ad] is celebrating male voyeurism,” he said.
And while the ad certainly celebrates Sweeney’s body – and as an investor in the company, will certainly benefit her wallet – the experts weren’t sure that this made the ad empowering.
Rodgers said that one could argue that Sweeney’s appearance gave her “sexual capital” that she was able to use to her own benefit in appearing in the commercials.
But this appearance as a buxom, blond-haired, blue-eyed young woman also reinforced traditional beauty ideals that few share.
“There is no empowering element to people who don’t have her very conventionally attractive body,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers also questioned whether it was really empowering to send a message to women who do have such a body that they can utilize it and leverage it for financial and social capital.
“One of the things that was most irritating is that [the Novig ad] is both dated, and it’s also not right – because she knows exactly what she’s doing, because there’s been 20 years of conversation around it,” said Rodgers.
