Billy Bush defends Sydney Sweeney over controversial sports ad campaign
Feminist backlash erupts over Sydney Sweeney’s new sports betting commercial, but Billy Bush calls her marketing strategy ‘brilliant.’ Bush tells Jesse Watters that Sweeney secured equity in Novig before the ad gained forty million views. He compares the controversy to previous outrage over American Eagle and the ESPN Body Issue, noting that critics always eventually move on.
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Sydney Sweeney is doubling down on her controversial Novig sports betting ads.
On Sunday, the “Euphoria” star ditched her top in a new commercial for the prediction market platform, wearing only white Novig underwear while strategically covering herself with footballs.
“There are grown men making spreadsheets to bet on what color underwear I’m wearing,” Sweeney says in the ad posted on Instagram. “I mean, I’m flattered?”
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Sydney Sweeney released a new sports betting ad weeks after backlash for the original campaign. (Getty Images for SCAD)
She then jokes about someone “betting their 401(k) on a war” before concluding, “Novig is … just sports.”
The new campaign comes weeks after Sweeney’s first Novig advertisement sparked fierce backlash from female athletes and critics who accused the company of sexualizing women in sports.
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Sweeney’s latest post quickly drew support from fans, with commenters writing, “Keep going girl,” and, “Here comes the wave of angry people.”
An ad from sports betting site Novig featuring actress Sydney Sweeney displayed in Times Square in New York City on Sept. 16. (Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect)
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In the original ad, Sweeney appeared nearly nude while posing with sports equipment and telling viewers the platform was “just sports.” The campaign prompted criticism from Olympians and professional athletes, including swimmer Ariarne Titmus, who called it a “kick in the face” to women who have devoted their lives to sports.
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Gymnast Gracie Kramer accused the ad of marketing women’s sports “through the male gaze,” while British sprinter Amy Hunt said the campaign offered an inaccurate picture of what women in sports look like.
An ad from sports betting site Novig featuring actress Sydney Sweeney is displayed in Times Square on Sept. 16. (Getty Images)
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Sweeney later appeared to respond by sharing images of famous athletes, including Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe and Caroline Wozniacki, who had posed nude for ESPN’s Body Issue.
Adrienne Uthe, founder of Kronus Communications, previously told Fox News Digital that while Sweeney’s ad may have ruffled feathers, “women having agency also means allowing women to make choices about their image that other women may not personally agree with.”
“People are entitled to dislike the ad, just like women athletes are entitled to criticize it for their own reasons,” Uthe said. “But I don’t think this is materially damaging to Sydney Sweeney in any way, shape or form.
Sydney Sweeney faced the wrath of online critics after posing in a provocative new sports betting campaign. (Carlo Paloni)
“In fact, I don’t think it’s a large departure from who she is and what her brand represents. She’s a beautiful woman right now at the peak of her career, and she ultimately can decide which projects she wants to take and which ones she doesn’t.”
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She added, “And she’s chosen to make sexuality a part of her brand for better or for worse.”
Novig defended the original advertisement as a “fun idea” created with “confidence, humor and a playful edge.”
The latest campaign is not the first time Sweeney has found herself at the center of a major advertising controversy.
Sydney Sweeney posed in the nude for her Novig. campaign, a move that sparked controversy among athletes and experts. (TheStewartofNY)
In 2025, her American Eagle campaign, titled “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” drew backlash over a promotional video that played on the words “genes” and “jeans.” Critics accused the campaign of carrying racial undertones, with some social media users even labeling it “Nazi propaganda.”
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Other fans defended Sweeney and the clothing brand, arguing that the ad was simply a playful promotion for jeans. One supporter wrote, “Woke advertising is dead. Sydney Sweeney killed it.”
Fox News Digital’s Tracy Wright contributed to this post.