Sydney Sweeney displaying her body in little or no attire is nothing new. If I had a body like hers, I’d do the same. Sweeney is a good actress and a better businesswoman, leaning into her moment while it lasts.**
Last month, the so-called prediction market Novig (it’s a gambling site exploiting a legal loophole) launched a racy campaign featuring Sweeney wearing nothing but sporting equipment to convey the message that Novig only allows bets on sports. This is a real difference from Kalshi and Polymarket, which allow bets on anything—including military operations that one soldier bet on because he knew what was going to happen.
Despite many complaints, particularly from female athletes arguing that the campaign sexualized women athletes, Novig doubled down and released a second Sweeney admaking the exact point that “Just Sports” is less dangerous than the competition: “There’s insider trading on dictators dying, and armies of bots manipulating it all. There’s someone sitting in a bathroom stall betting their 401(k) on a war. And then, there are people who just trade on sports.” The ad is hard to find, but Advertising Age ($) has it here.
Two Digressions:
#1. The name “Novig” suggests that the company does not take fees (no cut to the house, no “vigorish,” “no vig”), though it does.
#2. Sweeney never claimed to be a woman athlete. Instead, she is a woman concealing her privates with boxing gloves and the like. It’s also worth noting (back to her being a savvy businesswoman) that she approached Novig, invested, and helped with the creative direction of the spots, per the Wall Street Journal ($).
End of digressions.
Powerade joins the fray
Coca-Cola-owned Powerade replied this week with a social media post claiming that it’s “Never Just Sports” in women’s sports, and leaned into its history of supporting women athletes.
I agree with supporting women athletes, but the post was, I think, more “let’s grab some of this attention while we can” than high-minded—not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The Powerade VP of marketing, Leah Macko, told Advertising Age ($):
We’ve long believed that there’s no “just” about what it takes to compete, especially for women in sports, so we saw this as an opportunity to celebrate the determination, resilience and impact female athletes bring to their sport.
Again, I agree with everything Macko says, but without her explanation the ad’s tagline—“Never Just Sports”—inadvertently suggests the opposite: that women’s sports involve more than athletic competition, like the very objectification the ad inveighs against.
Any tagline that needs an explanation is like a joke that needs one: not great.
“What Women Want”
This is the 2000 Paramount film that the combo platter of the Novig spots and the Powerade rejoinder brought to mind. In that film, Mel Gibson plays womanizer, chauvinist Nick, who gains the power to read women’s minds and learns what a pig he has been.
During his journey, Nick, who works in a creative agency, successfully pitches Nike on a campaign for its women’s line with the tagline, “No games. Just sports.” (The movie is streaming on Paramount+, and this scene is at 1:33.)
With What Women Want in mind, the Novig versus Powerade comparison becomes dizzying.
Novig is all about betting (a game) about sports (other games). Powerade’s rejoinder is that women’s sports (games) are about more than women’s bodies. The fictional Nike campaign says that women athletes are just about sports (games), but not the kind of interpersonal games that straight women often find themselves playing with men. In the movie, a woman runner finds relief from the interpersonal games on the road.
My question: am I the only person who noticed this?
Note: to get articles like this one, plus a lot more goodies and things worth your attention, via email, please subscribe to my free weekly newsletter.
* Image Prompt: Please create the following photorealistic image. It’s early morning, the perfect time for a before-work run. In the distance a road with trees lining each side curves off to the left. A woman runs down the road. Her back is to us. She is wearing shorts and a loose fitting t-shirt. She is in her mid 30s. In the bottom right foreground we see the words “No Games.”
** As Rosalind observes to Phoebe in As You Like It, “sell when you can; you are not for all markets” (Act 3, scene 5).
Leave a Reply