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Sydney Sweeney’s Novig sports-equipment ad
Monday 14th September, 2026
Novig cast Sydney Sweeney in a 58-second advert, posing mostly nude and covered with sports equipment, to promote its sports prediction app. The provocative creative sparked criticism from athletes and drove a sharp rise in attention: Novig’s Instagram following grew from 37,000 to 93,000, and it briefly overtook competitors in US Google search interest.
Why it worked: It weaponized backlash-as-proof by showing quantifiable spikes (search interest, follower growth) that reframed outrage into measurable business momentum.
The lesson: Consider pitching a polarizing creative or stance alongside real-time metrics dashboards that prove attention converted into growth or signups.
Novig
6 Sources:
Coverage over time
How this story spread across the media
| Publication | Headline | Date |
|---|---|---|
| northeastern.edu | How sports betting app Novig trolls us with its Sydney Sweeney ads | Monday 14th September, 2026 |
| foxnews.com | Sydney Sweeney’s provocative sports ad 'reinforces the image she has already built' despite backlash: expert | Friday 18th September, 2026 |
| axios.com | Why Sydney Sweeney's nude ad struck such a nerve with women athletes | Friday 18th September, 2026 |
| pittnews.com | Purposefully problematic: Novig and Sydney Sweeney - The Pitt News | Wednesday 23rd September, 2026 |
| usatoday.com | Sydney Sweeney ad sparked online backlash. Novig's visibility exploded. | Wednesday 23rd September, 2026 |
| ynetnews.com | Sydney Sweeney’s nude sports ad sparks backlash from female athletes over objectification | Saturday 26th September, 2026 |