Actress Sydney Sweeney posted a new ad for the sports prediction app Novig on Sunday. It's her second for the company. In the 30-second video, she's mostly topless in underwear. "There are grown men making spreadsheets to bet on what color underwear I'm wearing," she says. "I mean… I'm flattered?" Then she takes a shot at rival markets, which she says have "insider trading on dictators dying." Her first Novig ad ran September 9. In it she posed nearly nude behind sports gear. Women athletes criticized it, and some of them were Olympians. Sweeney also owns a stake in Novig. The company's value has jumped from $500 million to $2 billion since February. The new ad drew close to 650,000 Instagram likes in a day.

The Ad Sexualizes Women's Sport

Athletes say the campaign sells women's bodies and ignores what they can do.

The ad undoes years of work by women athletes. Ariarne Titmus, an Australian swimmer with four Olympic gold medals, said she was "infuriated" by the first ad. "How do we live in a world where monetising a woman's body and sexualising women's sport is still a thing?" she asked. British sprinter Amy Hunt said role models for young women should show "what your body can do, not so much what it looks like."

Using sex to sell women's sport feeds an old stereotype. Gracie Kramer, a former UCLA gymnast, said using sex to get men interested in women's sports "reinforces the exact narrative we've been trying to dismantle." She posted a video of her own in response. Olympic skier Cassidy Gray called the ad "idiotic."

But It's a Joke, and It Worked

Sweeney and Novig say the ad is playful, and Novig says the first ad drew a wave of new customers.

The ad was never about women athletes. Sweeney called the first ad "a fun idea" made "with confidence, humour and a playful edge." She answered critics by posting old ESPN Body Issue covers, which showed famous athletes posing nude. Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky said the campaign wasn't meant to represent female athletes. "Ultimately, I think we have nothing to apologize for," he told CNBC.

The first ad paid off for Novig. Fortinsky said the number of first-time depositors more than tripled around the first ad's launch. Writer Mike McDaniel argued in American Thinker that Sweeney made a smart business bet with her own stake. He called the athletes' complaints hypocritical, since their own uniforms aren't built for "absolute female modesty." Fans mostly cheered the new ad. One comment with more than 30,000 likes said, "Love that she doubles down on the hate."

The Bigger Problem Is the Betting

A marketing ethicist says the ad pairs sex with gambling to hook young men.

This ad sells gambling to young men. David Hagenbuch, a marketing professor at Messiah University, says the campaign hits young men with "two of its most enticing vices: pornography and sports gambling." He called the mix "a perfect storm of addiction." He also said the ad runs online only, so it skips broadcast TV rules on sexual content.

People still bet a lot of money on Novig. Novig handled $672 million in trades in the week ending October 11, according to Covers. Nearly half of that money went into parlays.

Where This Lands

Titmus, Hunt and Kramer say the ads sell women's bodies and set back athletes who want people to judge them on their skill. Sweeney calls the ads playful, and Fortinsky says they were never about female athletes. Fortinsky points to Novig's growth as proof the campaign worked. Hagenbuch says the real harm is pairing sex with gambling to reach young men. Fortinsky told Ad Age the second ad was "always the plan." The new ad aims its sharpest lines at Novig's rivals.

Sources