Sophie Cunningham Critiques Sydney Sweeney's Gambling Ad
Sophie Cunningham didn’t mince words. She’s disappointed in Sydney Sweeney’s latest gambling ad — but, as she put it, she’s “not surprised.”
On the Sept. 17 episode of her podcast “No Hesitation,” the Indiana Fever guard unpacked the reaction to Sweeney’s campaign for sports trading app Novig, a spot that has ricocheted around social media and drawn sharp criticism from across the athletic world.
The imagery is blunt: the “Euphoria” star posed mostly nude, her body covered only by sports equipment — two footballs here, a basketball hoop there. For many female athletes, it landed like a step backward.
From artistic gymnast Gracie Kramer to runner Mary McCarthy, a string of competitors have condemned the ad, arguing it leans on tired tropes about women’s bodies to sell a product tied to men, money and sport.
Cunningham has been flooded with messages about it — “text messages, DMs and comments,” as she described — and finally decided to give her take.
“I have so many takes, but like it's just, first of all like, does she even gamble on sports? It's just so unauthentic,” she said on the show. “Like, am I surprised of how she represented the brand? No. That's what she's made her whole career off.”
She didn’t turn it into a personal attack on Sweeney. In fact, she went out of her way to separate the actress from the ad.
“And hey, don't get me wrong, like I like her,” Cunningham said. “Everyone knows she is beautiful. She is hot. She clearly has my chest ... And so like, I really like her. And you know what, she sticks to her guns, and she does her thing and she's her, so like props to her.”
Then came the pivot.
Cunningham admitted she doesn’t “really” like the Novig spot itself. She told co-host Drew Hanlen she’s “not surprised” by the creative direction because it fits what Sweeney is “known for,” but that doesn’t mean she has to endorse it.
Her bigger question was aimed at the backlash.
“But why are girls mad? That is literally what she does. Why is anyone mad?” Cunningham asked. “It is a gambling ad. Men, sports, pretty much naked women – like of course that's going to draw attention.”
She didn’t shy away from the moral tension.
“Again, do I agree with it? Uh, morally, I think it's kind of weird but like to each their own. Go do your thing, sis.”
‘I don't think the ad was coming for women in sport’
While many athletes have framed the ad as an affront to women’s sports, Cunningham sees a different angle. For her, the real story is how other women have responded.
“… I'm really loving seeing all these girls who are powerful, strong, showing young girls what it looks like to actually be an athlete,” she said.
“I don't think the ad was coming for women in sport,” she added, before turning to the way female athletes present themselves. “But ... I think it has been so cool to see girls who, you know what, they're muscly, their thighs touch, they have broad shoulders, they might be taller than the average girl and probably the average boy, but you know what, I think that's what, that's what it is. Like, you gotta embrace your power.”
Cunningham acknowledged why, at first glance, the Novig campaign might feel like a slap in the face to women who have fought for respect in a space long dominated by men.
On the surface, it looks like the oldest play in the book: gambling, sports, and a nearly naked woman.
“… It (Sweeney's ad) could kind of deflate women because it's like we've worked so hard to get a little bit of respect around here,” she said.
But after sitting with it, Cunningham landed somewhere else. For her, the ad and the movement around women’s sports live in different lanes.
“When you really think about it, it's like 'Screw it, let that girl go do her thing.' We can still, this has nothing to do with us,” she concluded.
In other words, Sweeney can sell what she wants. The real power play, in Cunningham’s eyes, is how women athletes choose to define themselves — not in reaction to a gambling ad, but on their own terms, in their own arena.
