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The story
US sports-betting startup Novig released an ad on September 9 featuring actress Sydney Sweeney appearing nearly nude, urging viewers to use the app to bet on NBA and NFL games. In response, female athletes — led by former US collegiate gymnastics champion Gracie Kramer — have been posting photos of their own trained bodies on social media in protest. On 5ch threads, defenders ask, “Why is this a problem when nobody’s actually harmed?” while critics argue that “selling women’s sports through the male gaze is a step backwards” — and the discussion eventually spiraled into comparisons with other actresses’ looks.
Sydney Sweeney, the actress who seems to land in controversy again and again, is facing fierce backlash once more over her latest ad.
This time the spark was a campaign ad released on September 9 (local time) by Novig, a new US sports-betting app. In the video, Sydney appears nearly nude, strategically covering herself with a basketball and a football while striking provocative poses and urging viewers to use the app to bet on games like the NBA and NFL. One shot shows a topless Sydney covering her chest with her hands, looking into the camera and saying, “Just you, your opinion, and the sport.”
The ad has sparked outrage, particularly among female athletes. Gracie Kramer, a former US collegiate gymnastics champion, posted footage of her grueling training and competitions to Instagram, pushing back with, “I don’t know what Sydney Sweeney is doing, but this is what women in sports actually look like.” She added angrily, “Watching women’s sports get sold through the male gaze feels like a huge step backwards.”
Source: elle.com / Original article here
What people said
What's Sydney Sweeney's equivalent in Japanese-actress terms? Someone like Haruka Ayase?
Among the young-to-mid-career crowd, someone who's already lead-role famous —
Riho Yoshioka.
Dan Mitsu, back when she was popular. (a Japanese tarento known for her sex-symbol image)
She totally ripped off Yasumura's bit — she should've said "don't worry!" too. (Hikaru Yasumura is a Japanese comedian famous for a nude-look pose routine where he shouts "Anshin shite kudasai!" — "Don't worry!" — before revealing he's wearing underwear)
Is that actually a protest though?
It devalues sports, plain and simple. There's just not enough respect for sports here.
Ah, so this is just her usual thing.
Emma Stone's another one getting hyped a ton lately with that same kind of face. Personally, not my type at all.
Background and Key Points of Debate
In the US, sports-betting apps have rapidly gone legal and mainstream in recent years, fueling an escalating arms race of provocative celebrity-driven ads. Sweeney has repeatedly courted controversy before — including her American Eagle jeans ad — and this latest campaign follows that same pattern. The thread split along two lines: one side prioritizes individual freedom, arguing “she agreed to do it and nobody’s actually harmed,” while the other argues that “framing female athletes’ hard work in the same sexualized terms devalues sports” — a divide that doesn’t reduce to a simple pro/con split. It’s also worth noting that the athletes’ objection isn’t to nudity itself, but to sexualized imagery being used in the context of women’s sports specifically — a distinction the original article emphasizes as well.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Sports Sokuhou+) thread “[Actress] Sydney Sweeney sparks backlash over provocative nude sports-betting ad — Olympic athletes among critics.”
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