Sydney Sweeney's new semi-nude advertisement for sports prediction platform Novig has reignited debate over whether her provocative marketing is a knowing performance, calculated controversy, or something more troubling dressed up as empowerment. Writing in the Guardian, the columnist argues that Sweeney's evident self-awareness and delight in stirring reaction suggest genuine skill, but questions remain about the deeper purpose behind imagery that leans heavily on soft-porn tropes to sell a sports betting product marketed as apolitical and free of "wars, deaths and politics."

The Novig campaign sees Sweeney posing in various sporting guises, using props such as American footballs and tennis attire to create innuendo-laden visuals reminiscent of 1970s erotica and the iconic 1980s Athena tennis poster. The piece situates this within Sweeney's broader public image, tracing it back to her controversial American Eagle "great jeans" advert, widely read as echoing Donald Trump's "great genes" rhetoric, which cemented her status as a polarising, so-called "anti-woke" figure despite ongoing disagreement over what that label actually means.