Billy Bush defends Sydney Sweeney following controversial sports ad campaign
Feminist backlash erupts over Sydney Sweeney’s new sports betting ad, but Billy Bush calls her marketing strategy “brilliant.” Bush told Jesse Watters that Sweeney obtained shares in Novig before the ad reached forty million views. He compares the controversy to previous outrage over the American Eagle and ESPN Body Issue, noting that critics always eventually move on.
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Sydney Sweeney doubles down on controversial Novig sports betting ads.
The “Euphoria” star ditched her top in a new ad for the prediction market platform on Sunday, wearing only white Novig underwear while strategically covering herself in soccer balls.
“There are grown men making spreadsheets to bet on what color underwear I wear,” Sweeney says in the Instagram ad. “I mean, am I flattered?”
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Sydney Sweeney has released a new sports betting ad weeks after backlash to the original campaign. (Getty Images for SCAD)
She then jokes about someone “betting their 401(k) on a war” before concluding, “Novig is… just sports.”
The new campaign comes weeks after Sweeney’s first Novig ad sparked fierce backlash from female athletes and critics who accused the company of sexualizing women in sports.
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Sweeney’s latest post quickly drew support from fans, with commenters writing, “Keep going girl,” and “Here comes the wave of angry people.”
An advertisement from sports betting site Novig featuring actress Sydney Sweeney displayed in Times Square in New York on September 16. (Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect)
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In the original ad, Sweeney appeared nearly naked while posing with sports equipment and telling viewers the platform was “just sports.” The campaign drew criticism from Olympians and professional athletes, including swimmer Ariarne Titmus, who called it a “kick in the face” to women who have dedicated their lives to sport.
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Gymnast Gracie Kramer accused the advert of marketing women’s sport “through the male gaze”, while British sprinter Amy Hunt said the campaign offered an inaccurate picture of what women in sport look like.
An advertisement from sports betting site Novig featuring actress Sydney Sweeney is displayed in Times Square on September 16. (Getty Images)
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Sweeney then appeared to respond by sharing images of famous athletes, including Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe and Caroline Wozniacki, who had posed nude for ESPN’s Body Issue.
Adrienne Uthe, founder of Kronus Communicationspreviously told Fox News Digital that while Sweeney’s ad may have ruffled feathers, “women having agency also means allowing women to make choices about their image that other women may not personally agree with.”
“People have the right to dislike the ad, just like female athletes have the right to criticize it for their own reasons,” Uthe said. “But I don’t think it materially harms Sydney Sweeney in any way.
Sydney Sweeney has faced the wrath of online critics after posing in a provocative new sports betting campaign. (Carlo Paloni)
“I actually don’t think it’s a big change from who she is and what her brand represents. She’s a beautiful woman right now, at the peak of her career, and she can ultimately decide which projects she wants to take on and which ones she doesn’t.”
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She added: “And she has chosen to make sexuality part of her brand, for better or worse.”
Novig defended the original ad as a “fun idea” created with “confidence, humor and a playful touch.”
The latest campaign isn’t the first time Sweeney has found himself at the center of a major advertising controversy.
Sydney Sweeney posed nude for her Novig. campaign, a decision that sparked controversy among athletes and pundits. (The Stewart of NY)
In 2025, its American Eagle campaign, titled “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans”, received backlash following a promotional video that played on the words “genes” and “jeans”. Critics have accused the campaign of having racist overtones, with some social media users even calling it “Nazi propaganda.”
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Other fans defended Sweeney and the clothing brand, arguing that the ad was simply a playful promotion for the jeans. One supporter wrote: “Woke advertising is dead. Sydney Sweeney killed it. »
Fox News Digital’s Tracy Wright contributed to this post.
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