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“Dear Sydney, the Novig advert is an attempt to sexualise women’s involvements in sports and sell sports through the sexualisation of women. The advert is gross, sickening and I hate it.” - Jess Bunyard
You probably have heard about the latest Sydney Sweeney advert. It is an advert for Novig, the sports trading app, and it features Sweeney in various states of undress. Her nude or semi-nude body covered by different items of sports equipment.
There’s been a huge backlash online. My feed is full of women demonstrating what sporty women look like.
The sexualisation of women in sports in advertising is a relic I thought we had, for the most part, left behind in the 00’s. Novig and Sweeney decided to roll out the trope. It’s important to note that in a statement released by Novig, Sweeney is a ‘strategic partner and equity holder’1 in the company.
The objectification of women and what that means for female coaches is something I have explored within my DProf. Reducing women to pure sexual objects is an attempt to undermine our skills, intellect and achievements.
The objectification of women and girls pervades society, including sport. Teenage girls leave sport due to fear of judgement, especially from boys, and they worry about having the ‘right’ body.
“Dear Sydney, there’s no way to ignore or avoid the politics of being a woman in sport. For us, it’s always political” - Alice Lancaster
The advert is for the male gaze.2 The advert uses Sweeney as an object, alongside the other objects/sports equipment she poses with. It is built for men and assumes that men will gamble if they see a woman nude/semi-nude whispering sports.
It also implies that men will only engage in women’s sports when there is sexual objectification. This undermines male allyship. Coded within the advert is an assumption that every man that watches women’s sports is just there to objectify women.
The advert is everything I hate. I love the groundswell of women posting their reactions and what women in sport look like. That goes without saying.
Beyond the overt objectification in order to “sell sports”, the tagline is also loaded with meaning for women in sport. The tagline of “think you know sports, prove it?” is meant to be a challenge to men to come and prove their worth and knowledge to impress a nude Sydney Sweeney.
Female coaches will know that phrase well. It carries a political and sexist layering. ‘Prove it’ is what I’ve had to do for most of my time coaching rugby. Layered within that is a message that women don’t know sports. I’ve been outright quizzed by men within rugby about my knowledge of the sport.
I won’t prove my knowledge. I won’t justify my place in sport.
PS. Check out a powerful article on Monday that explores more of this, using the ‘prove it’ tagline as a starting point.
Dear Sydney, this isn’t sport. I value and respect every community that gives itself to sport, and this advert has more in common with the magazines that used to line the top shelf at the corner shop than with anything happening on a court or a track. Dressing that image in football pads and calling it “just sports” doesn’t make it sport. It borrows sport’s credibility to sell the same old picture of a woman’s body.
What troubles me most isn’t only the ad, it’s what the ad forces. Once again, women athletes have had to step forward and fight for their worth, and to be visibly strong, resilient and principled while they do it. I understand why they have to and applaud them for doing so. The ad reduces a woman to a body; the only sanctioned reply reduces her to a virtue. Either way, she has to hold something up a football, or the word “strong” before she is allowed to be valued.
Not every woman should have to be “strong” to count. Not every female athlete should be conscripted, over and over, as the resilient one, the principled one, the first to rise and defend everyone’s dignity. That expectation is its own kind of flattening. We keep narrowing what a woman is allowed to be - first to a shape, then to a single approved quality. We call the second one progress” - Becky Skeen
Want to watch advertising that showcases women’s sports? Check out Nike’s Dream Crazier advert.
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/sep/14/ariarne-titmus-comments-sydney-sweeney-sexualising-womens-sport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_gaze