Sydney Sweeney's nude Novig campaign draws athlete backlash while branding experts debate the wider signal for women in sport

The Novig sports trading app placed actress Sydney Sweeney, 29, at the center of a campaign featuring strategically placed sports equipment over her mostly nude body, drawing pushback from Olympians and a sharper argument about what that kind of campaign says about women in sport at scale.

Ariarne Titmus, Australia's Olympic gold medal swimmer, British sprinter Amy Hunt, and former American gymnast Gracie Kramer were among the athletes to publicly denounce the ad. In a statement carried by Variety, Sweeney described the concept in plain terms: cut through the noise and focus entirely on sports, executed with "confidence, humor and a playful edge." Her representatives did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Two readings of the backlash

Adrienne Uthe, founder of Kronus Communications, separated brand visibility from business performance. Going viral captures attention, she told Fox News Digital, but it does not confirm that Novig captured a customer. On Sweeney's personal exposure, Uthe was direct: the ad aligns with the image Sweeney has built, and she did not think it would cause material damage. "She's chosen to make sexuality a part of her brand for better or for worse," Uthe said. Her broader point was that social media makes the loudest narrative feel like the majority one, and the two rarely match.

Olivia Bennett, Senior Account Director at Go Up, agreed the campaign fit Sweeney's established image. The problem, in her reading, sits elsewhere. When female athletes begin using a campaign as an exhibit of the problem they have spent years working against, the reputational exposure extends well beyond a cycle of negative comments. "Personal-brand fit doesn't remove the wider impact of the message you're putting into the world," Bennett told Fox News Digital.

The ESPN framing

Sweeney's visible response was to post a set of ESPN magazine covers featuring nude athletes, among them Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe, and Caroline Wozniacki, with a caption tagging Novig. The posts drew both support and a counter-reading from critics who argued the contexts were not equivalent.

One commenter, writing as a former athlete, put the objection in terms close to Bennett's framing: the issue was female athletes being evaluated on their bodies rather than their performance. "We've spent years fighting to be seen and respected for our talent, strength, and achievements," the comment read, "not reduced to our bodies."

Bennett's assessment holds its position without softening: "For Sydney, I don't think the campaign is off-brand at all. If anything, it reinforces the image she has already built. But that doesn't make it good for women in sport."