Sydney Sweeney sparks backlash over bold sports ad

Hollywood actress Sydney Sweeney has sparked fresh controversy online after appearing in a provocative new advertisement for sports trading app Novig.

The Anyone But You star shared a clip from the campaign on Instagram earlier this week, captioning the post, “Just sports @novig.” The video quickly attracted widespread attention, with millions of views and a wave of criticism from social media users.

Several commenters accused the actress and the brand of relying too heavily on sexualised imagery to promote a sports-related product. One user questioned why similar content is allowed on Instagram while less revealing posts are sometimes removed.

Another commenter described the advertisement as one of the worst commercials they had seen, while others criticised what they considered an unnecessary sexualisation of sports.

The latest backlash comes after Sweeney faced controversy over her previous American Eagle advertising campaign. The campaign used the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” playing on the similarity between “jeans” and “genes.” Critics argued that references to inherited physical traits could be interpreted as evoking ideas associated with eugenics and racial superiority.

American Eagle and Sweeney faced significant online debate over the campaign, although the actress later continued to defend her professional choices.

Addressing the concept behind her latest sports campaign, Sweeney said the idea was to cut through distractions and keep the focus on sports. She described the campaign as confident, humorous and playful.

Meanwhile, Scooter Braun, who has been linked romantically with Sweeney since last year, appeared to respond indirectly to the ongoing online scrutiny. He shared a New York Times post commemorating the victims and officials involved in the September 11 attacks on his Instagram Stories, adding the word “Heroes.”

Neither Sweeney nor her representatives has issued a direct response to the latest criticism surrounding the advertisement.