A year after the controversial “Great Jeans” campaign for American Eagle, Sydney Sweeney has stirred up a storm with yet another commercial.
On September 9, 2026, sports betting company Novig released an advertisement featuring the Euphoria actress in barely-there outfits, with sports equipment like basketballs and tennis rackets strategically covering her modesty in multiple scenes.
Highlights
- Sydney Sweeney recently faced severe backlash over her new advertisement for the sports betting platform Novig.
- Former SNL star Chloe Fineman mocked Sweeney with a parody recreation of the ad.
- Several female athletes have also called her out for the “damaging” message in her commercial.
The campaign immediately drew backlash not only from the public but also from female athletes, many of whom called Sweeney out directly.
A Saturday Night Live (SNL) alum soon capitalized on the situation, with Chloe Fineman posting a skit mocking Sweeney.
“This is absolutely hilarious and far less cringey than the actual ad,” one person commented.
SNL alum Chloe Fineman mocked Sydney Sweeney’s barely-covered Novig ad
In July 2026, Chloe Fineman announced she was leaving SNL after seven seasons, and she is set to appear as a series regular in Netflix’s upcoming thriller show, Myron Bolitar.
In the meantime, she found the time to film and share a comedy video days after Sydney Sweeney’s Novig advertisement aired, and tagged her in it as well.
“Yesterday I moved out of my dressing room at SNL, but I got to take my ‘Sydney Sweeneys,’” Fineman said in her September 12 video posted on Instagram, holding a prosthetic mold over her breasts.
Wearing a pair of red shorts and a blonde wig to echo Sweeney’s hairstyle, Fineman then acts out a parody of the original video as various types of sports balls are thrown at her chest.
“Sydney Sweeney loves sports,” she says. “Sports. Sports.”
She repeats the word “sports” throughout the video, as Sweeney does in hers, copying the actress’ intonation.
“Many people think this ad is about sports. But it’s actually about t**s,” Fineman says in one scene. “Caught it with my t**s,” she says in another.
“I don’t know. I got the b**s, and I thought it would be funny,” she says at the end of the video, still in character. “I know you’re probably uncomfortable, but I think they’re fun and cool.”
Fineman’s video has earned 85,000 likes and thousands of comments, with a majority cheering her on for the humorous video.
“This might be the best thing you've ever done,” one said. Another wrote, “Thank god someone has finally parodied this.”
Female athletes blasted Sydney Sweeney for “setting back” women’s sports
Meanwhile, the backlash against Sweeney swelled, especially after multiple female athletes made their opinion on the video clear.
“Very inappropriate and feeding misogyny,” one user said. A second wrote, “Setting women in sports back years.”
Retired Australian Olympic gold medalist swimmer Ariarne Titmus wrote on Instagram, “I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this.”
“How do we live in a world where monetizing a woman’s body and s*xu*lizing women’s sport is still a thing?” she continued, adding that the ad felt like “a kick in the face.”
Australian surfer Felicity Palmateer told CNN that the ad was “very damaging for young females getting into sports, for females in sport, for females in general.”
“Just absolute utter disbelief, incredibly disappointing, like, how far you can put women’s sports backward in the space of a 42-second commercial,” she added.
American gymnast Gracie Kramer told NBC News that the underlying issue with the ad was “much bigger than Sydney Sweeney.”
“When s*xu*lization is used as a way to get men interested in women’s sports, it reinforces the exact narrative that we’ve been trying to dismantle,” she said.
“This isn’t celebrity drama to me. It’s about the culture we’re creating for the next generation of girls in sports and making sure they grow up believing their talent is enough to deserve attention and respect.”
Many other athletes posted videos of themselves training and competing, with the caption, “I don’t know what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but THIS is what sport looks like.
Sydney Sweeney issued a cryptic response after facing backlash
While Sydney Sweeney has not directly addressed the backlash, she shared a series of images over the weekend of famous athletes who have previously appeared completely or partially unclothed for magazine photoshoots.
Among them were Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe, and Caroline Wozniacki, as well as male athletes, such as Myles Garrett, Rob Gronkowski, and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Some netizens spoke up in her favor as well.
“She is just modeling, and I know a few male athletes who get their shirts off for commercials as well,” one said.
Another wrote, “Sydney Sweeney is not a problem. People who are desperate for attention and criticizing others just for a few seconds of fame or trying to stay relevant are the problem.”
Earlier, Sweeney called the Novig campaign “a very simple and playful idea” in an interview with Complex.
“Being able to be a part of watching this company grow and not just be the face of it is really important to me,” Sweeney said about the sports prediction platform, where she holds equity stakes as well.
She went on to explain that she grew up loving and playing sports, and had actively participated in soccer, softball, snow skiing, and mixed martial arts.
"Hate her ad but this is gold," one user said about Chloe Fineman's skit
