American actress Sydney Sweeney has this week faced backlash for her tone-deaf ad for US betting platform, Novig. The company chose to use her body as bait to sexualise women’s sports, during a time when women around the world are breaking records and competing at the highest levels.

Instead of championing the incredible sporting milestones that women’s bodies can achieve, she simply stands naked to appeal to a male gaze. Have we gone back in time by 20 years?

What gives us hope, though, is the response from female athletes - everyone from world champion runners and Olympic swimmers to fitness influencers have shared content of themselves to show Sydney what real women in sport look like. No, they’re not stood still with no clothes on - they are sweaty, muscly, strong and powerful.

Is there any such thing as bad PR?

*Mentions of Sydney Sweeney, Data from Pulsar on 15.09.

The overwhelming amount of people kicking back at the advert and sharing their frustrations online has drowned out the negativity and turned into a mini-movement to celebrate women in sport - proving the power of viral social media moments.

I couldn’t agree more that this type of marketing should be left in the past - it's lazy, uninspiring and completely disregards all the progress we’ve made in female representation.

But, as marketers, it does beg the age-old question. Is there any such thing as bad PR?

Since the ad broke on Monday, September 13, there has been more than 231,000 mentions of Sydney Sweeney online across the globe on TikTok, Instagram, X, and Facebook in online news.

That’s just online. When you think about the number of people who will be saying Sweeney’s name to their colleagues, friends and family - many who may not even know who the actress is – it really makes you realise the impact of viral marketing.

How did it affect Novig?

It’s been reported that Novig has seen a huge impact in social media mentions since the ad went live, as people are desperately looking to who is behind the dreadful ad.

We ran a search using our social listening tool that revealed Novig has seen a huge 410% increase in daily mentions, and an increase of 1,628% this week compared to the previous seven days. They have essentially gone from zero to 100 - a near enough impossible task for any marketer.

Despite all the negative connotations within the online news articles and social media mentions about Sweeney and Novig, they are both still making headlines - and being noticed is one of the most challenging things for any brand.

Sydney Sweeney may have lost of 200,000 followers, according to reports, since the ad went live, but I doubt that she will be losing out financially and professionally - with that figure only representing under 2% of her 26 million followers.

Will people choose Novig after seeing all this negativity? I seriously hope not.

Time will tell as to whether Novig see the return on investment for their ad (I’d love to know how much Sweeney charges for her time), as whilst it’s big in the news this week - it's likely forgotten next.

Despite these viral moments being conversation starters - in my opinion, what really builds brand fans is trust, respect and consistency.

What does women in sport mean to us?

I think the reason this ad has shocked us, and the rest of the world, is because of the incredible things that women are achieving around us all the time.

Women at Democracy are leaders, marathon runners, mountain summiteers, weightlifters, swimmers and so much more.

It’s beyond disappointing that this type of ad exists in 2026, but it speaks volumes that women have regained the narrative and brought the limelight back to what it really means to be a woman in sport.

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