Sophie Cunningham Critiques Sydney Sweeney's Novig Ad Campaign
Sophie Cunningham didn’t bother dressing it up.
Disappointed, yes. Surprised? Not at all.
On the latest episode of her podcast “No Hesitation,” released Thursday, the Indiana Fever guard waded straight into the storm swirling around Sydney Sweeney’s new ad campaign for sports trading app Novig — an ad that has drawn sharp criticism from across the athletic world.
The spot features the “Euphoria” star mostly nude, her body covered only by strategically placed sports equipment: two footballs, a basketball hoop, other props. The imagery, paired with the gambling angle, has triggered backlash from athletes including artistic gymnast Gracie Kramer and runner Mary McCarthy, who see it as another step backward in how women in and around sport are portrayed.
Cunningham has been flooded with “text messages, DMs and comments” asking for her view. She finally answered.
‘Does she even gamble on sports?’
Cunningham’s first instinct cut right to authenticity.
“I have so many takes, but like it's just, first of all like, does she even gamble on sports? It's just so unauthentic,” she said on the show. “You know what I mean? Like, am I surprised of how she represented the brand? No. That's what she's made her whole career off.”
She didn’t attack Sweeney personally. In fact, she went out of her way to praise her.
“And hey, don't get me wrong, like I like her. Like, she, everyone knows she is beautiful. She is hot. She clearly has my chest ... And so like, I really like her. And you know what, she sticks to her guns, and she does her thing and she's her, so like props to her.”
The issue for Cunningham isn’t Sweeney’s image. It’s the way that image is being leveraged in a sports gambling space that already leans heavily on a familiar formula.
“Men, sports, pretty much naked women – like of course that's going to draw attention,” she said.
‘Do I agree with it? Morally, I think it's kind of weird’
Pressed on whether she actually liked the ad, Cunningham didn’t dance around it.
She told co-host Drew Hanlen she does “not really” like the campaign and that she’s “not surprised” by it because this is what Sweeney is “known for.”
“Again, do I agree with it? Uh, morally, I think it's kind of weird but like to each their own. Go do your thing, sis,” Cunningham said.
Her frustration isn’t rooted in outrage at Sweeney herself. It’s in the predictability of the playbook and the way it brushes up against the decades-long fight for respect for women who compete for a living.
At first glance, she admitted, the ad can feel like a direct shot at female athletes.
“It could kind of deflate women because it's like we've worked so hard to get a little bit of respect around here,” Cunningham said.
‘This has nothing to do with us’
Then she pivoted.
Despite her moral discomfort with the ad, Cunningham has found something else in the reaction — a surge of visible strength from women in sport who are pushing back by simply showing who they are.
“I'm really loving seeing all these girls who are powerful, strong, showing young girls what it looks like to actually be an athlete,” she said.
She rejected the idea that the Novig campaign is truly “coming for” women in sport, even if it sits uncomfortably next to their reality.
“I don't think the ad was coming for women in sport, but ... I think it has been so cool to see girls who, you know what, they're muscly, their thighs touch, they have broad shoulders, they might be taller than the average girl and probably the average boy, but you know what, I think that's what, that's what it is. Like, you gotta embrace your power,” Cunningham said.
That, for her, is the real counter-message: not outrage, but ownership.
“... when you really think about it, it's like 'Screw it, let that girl go do her thing.' We can still, this has nothing to do with us," she concluded.
The ad will keep running. The debate around it will flare and fade. The question that lingers is the one Cunningham is quietly pointing toward: as the sports world chases clicks with the same old imagery, how much louder will the athletes themselves make their own, very different picture of what power looks like?
