It’s so much more than “Just, sports”
Novig, a no-name sports betting app launched in August, is anything but that. Novig released their Just Sports campaign Sept. 9 with strategic partner and equity holder, Sydney Sweeney, stark naked and talking about “sports” for an entire 58 seconds.
As a girl who was raised in and around sports, actively works in sports and has no thoughts of backing down anytime soon, it enraged me. So much so, I decided to put down my camera for the week and address the video.
With the opening shot of the ad capturing Sweeney’s silhouette with a tennis racket covering her posterior, the message of the ad immediately falls deaf on the viewer. As the ad continues, Sweeney presents herself in various levels of undress while discussing which sports can be traded through Novig.
With the ad already reinforcing traditional male sports such as football, baseball, hockey and pool, introducing a heavily sexualized female actress feels performative for the male gaze, rather than empowering for athletes and informative to all-around sports fans.
Novig leaves nothing up to question about their intentions, subtitling the ad “Who better to tell you that Novig is Just Sports than Sydney Sweeney wearing just sports?”
The platform doubled down on their stance when publishing their press release for the new campaign. “Ahead of football season, Sydney Sweeney is putting the focus exactly where it belongs, on ‘Just Sports.’”
The article contains an excerpt from Sweeney, who was given creative liberties with the ad, saying she views the campaign in a humorous, edgy manner. The same actress who in March 2024 interview with Variety stated she felt out of control of how she and her body were perceived.
Novig could have asked countless Olympic and professional athletes to demonstrate the same sports Novig promotes for trade but instead stuck a nude actress in the sports context walking around with various equipment. For Novig to choose to use a woman to promote their trading application is one thing, but then to use someone not versed in the world of athletics and strip her bare is another.
Women fought for decades to be taken seriously in athletic spaces dominated by men, whether it be commentating as an ESPN host, working as an athletic trainer or team physical therapist or participating in the sport itself. In as short as a one-minute ad, years of progression in the space feel undone.
Sydney Sweeney and Novig are the reasons that I feel so unconfident in my positions. I question if I should wear makeup or jewelry or a scarf, in fear of looking like I am vying for attention. I refrain from following athletes I work with professionally to keep lines from blurring to outsiders.
Even walking around the stadium, I am wary of speaking to the higher ups, worried that I will be perceived as not doing my job well. Historically it has been so difficult for women to get into a space in the world of sports and when it happens, it feels like we constantly must prove our worth and qualifications.
It is a luxury to not have the idea of being thankful for how far we have come not constantly shoved in our faces, but unfortunately that is not a luxury we are afforded. I believe I will always be in my head about how I could be negatively perceived as a woman working in or with male sports, and that voice is only going to grow with media promoting women in sports the way that Novig has chosen to do.
Women can major in sports management, intern with athletic training departments or commit themselves to a sport for their entire life, but there will always be a voice questioning if they deserve to be where they are.
So sure, Novig is Just Sports, but they and Sydney Sweeney are just setting women in sports back.
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