By admin 
Women in sports media are being critical of Sydney Sweeney’s racy ad ahead of the start of the 2026 NFL regular season.
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Novig founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky employed Sweeney to take part in a racy, sports-themed ad for the prediction market company. The ad quickly went viral on social media, as it showed Sweeney posing with very little clothing, surrounded by sports gear.
“Sydney is great at captivating audiences and being the center of attention,” Fortinsky told FOS in an interview Wednesday afternoon after the ad dropped. “In some sense, it forces us into the national discourse.”
Sweeney, who is getting equity in the company, is standing by the ad, too.
“I don’t like to just put my face on something,” she said to Complex. “I really want to be able to get into the weeds of it with an amazing team. And I got to meet the Novig team. Jacob’s incredible, and I believed in him as a founder.”
Photos of the ad, which can be seen here, quickly went viral on social media.
But some women in sports media are not happy with Sweeney and the advertisement. They believe it’s a bad look for women in sports and something that will make it tougher for female reporters, analysts, etc.
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Women in sports sound off on Sweeney’s ad
“This [criticism] isn’t about me being jealous or insecure of [Sweeney]. … it’s about the fact that this is already a male-dominated field where we are constantly having to prove why we belong. it’s about having passions and joy working in this industry and when the only representation is sexualization, you see less and less young women wanting to pursue this industry!” Marissa Womack, manager of game day promotions and programming for minor league baseball team the Harrisburg Senators, said online.
Sam Tirelli, a studio/field director for a Maryland-based sports network, added similar complaints.
“There is 0 reason to have somebody naked just saying sports over and over again. You can make amazing ads and content without constantly having women be sexualized.”
Others, meanwhile, slammed the ad for being “exactly why women in sports aren’t taken seriously,” one TikTok user argued.
Read more Sydney Sweeney Sends NFL Fans Into Frenzy With Sunday Photo
What do you make of the ad – fair or foul play?
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This story was originally published September 13, 2026 at 8:03 AM.