Jen Psaki Says Sydney Sweeney “Looks Great, Good for Her,” but Warns Her Nude Novig Sports Betting Ad Sends the Wrong Message About Women in Sports

Jen Psaki, host of MS NOW, has slammed Sydney Sweeney’s recently viral Novig ad, where the actress appears nearly nude with sports equipment covering her body, saying that this ad perpetuates a long-held practice of the misogynistic sexualization of women in sports. Psaki emphasized that her complaints are focused on the message the ad delivers, not on Sweeney’s individual choice.

According to Ms. Psaki, the main problem is not in how Sweeney uses her body or how she looks. “She looks great, good for her,” Psaki commented. “But the problem is the message an ad like this sends about women in sports.”

First of all, as Psaki pointed out, female athletes have been facing continuous sexualization of their appearances in women’s sports that has been going on for decades.

“And I mean, for decades, as anyone who follows women’s sports knows, female athletes have been fighting this relentless and usually completely misogynistic sexualization of women’s sports. This has been an ongoing issue forever, especially at the pro and college level,” she said.

Furthermore, Psaki voiced full support for other female athletes who criticized the ad, including former US gymnast Gracie Kramer, who called it oversexualized. The timing of the ad campaign is additionally infuriating for college athletes, since women’s teams experience cuts in many areas.

Novig’s first-ever national ad campaign featuring Sweeney nude and covering her body with strategically positioned sporting equipment hit TV screens on September 9th. In the ad, the actress covered her breasts with two footballs, spun a basketball atop a hoop, played tennis in her underwear, used a golf club, and lay down on a pool table. A clip posted by Novig to Instagram Reels earned 37 million views in just four days.

In fact, Sweeney became a strategic partner and equity holder in Novig. According to her, the campaign “was about embracing a fun idea.” Novig is a platform for sports-prediction markets where users trade game outcomes with each other, not against a traditional bookmaker.

Psaki’s comments came after an outpouring of criticism from other athletes, including Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, who wrote on Instagram that the ad feels like “a kick in the face to every woman that has dedicated her entire life to sport.” British sprinter Amy Hunt addressed Sweeney directly during a race, stating that real women in sport are muscular and hard-working. Australian surfer Felicity Palmateer said in an interview with CNN that this campaign is damaging, especially to young girls entering the world of sports.

Sweeney seemed to respond to the criticism on her Instagram Stories by posting a sequence of pictures featuring nude athletes, including Serena Williams and Megan Rapinoe.

Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky said that his company didn’t want to make any statements about female athletes. “We never intended to portray female sports,” he said, adding that Sweeney was behind the visual part of the campaign. According to Fortinsky, as quoted by Front Office Sports, the campaign was created to put the company on the map and get into the national conversation. Novig spent most of its marketing budget on this campaign rather than on broad competition with FanDuel and DraftKings, which share 75% of the regulated US market.

However, some people online disagreed with the criticism, saying it was not a portrayal of the female athlete but an attempt to attract gamblers, most of whom are men. Some conservative commentators accused Psaki and other critics of missing the point of the ad, since it mentions whether one “has the balls” to use the platform.

This controversy came shortly after Sweeney’s “great genes/jeans” ad campaign for American Eagle.