Key Takeaways
- Bobbi Althoff posted an Instagram video spoofing Sydney Sweeney's Novig’s “Just Sports” ad while wearing a black bra and underwear in a kitchen.
- Sydney Sweeney's original "Novig Is Just Sports" ad debuted September 9 and has drawn more than 42 million views while promoting Novig, a sports prediction market.
- Olympic and professional athletes like Gracie Kramer, Tilly Kearns, Amy Hunt and Felicity Palmateer slammed the Novig campaign for sexualizing women's sports.
The ball is in Bobbi Althoff’s court in a spoof of Sydney Sweeney’s Novig commercial.
While the original ad spot for the sports trading app shows the Euphoria actress in suggestive positions in different athletic scenes, in a new Instagram reel, Althoff posted her version of Novig promo. While repeating “just sports,” the comedian and podcaster tossed tennis balls, baseballs and a pink baseball while wearing a matching black lingerie set.
Like her ‘Great Jeans’ campaign for American Eagle last year, the Novig ad has landed Sweeney in hot water, with the actress being accused of objectifying herself. Per The Guardian, in an Instagram Story shared by four-time Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus, she condemned the ad “as a kick in the face to every woman who had dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every women who enjoys sports for what it really is – teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellent, unity …”
Sprinter Amy Hunt also issued a response to the actress while at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest, telling Sweeney that “real women in sports” push themselves to the point of exhaustion.
“How do we live in a world where monetising a women’s body and sexualising women’s sport is still a thing?” she continued.
In an interview with Complex, Sweeney called the “Just Sports” campaign “a very simple and playful idea,” intended to “really bring the concept of ‘just sports’ to life.”
