Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky has responded to the uproar surrounding Sydney Sweeney’s nude sports advertisement, defending its intended message while revealing how heavily the actress influenced its provocative direction.
Fortinsky addressed the backlash during Front Office Sports’ Asset Class conference after female athletes accused the campaign of sexualizing women and presenting a distorted picture of their relationship with sports.
He began by rejecting the premise that the commercial was intended to represent female athletes.
“As a company, we’re hugely supportive of women’s sports,” Fortinsky said. “We never intended to portray female sports.”
The one-minute advertisement shows Sweeney nude or minimally covered by footballs, hockey equipment, a basketball and other sporting props. Its purpose, according to Novig, was to emphasize that the prediction-market platform offers trading exclusively on sports rather than politics, current events or celebrity-related propositions.
“Sydney’s an actress,” Fortinsky said. “We’re a prediction market that is focused on sports, and that was the story she was communicating.”
That explanation is unlikely to satisfy the athletes who interpreted the imagery differently. British sprinter Amy Hunt, Australian water polo player Tilly Kearns and former UCLA gymnast Gracie Kramer were among those who criticized the campaign.
Hunt declared, “This is what women’s sport looks like,” after competing in the 200-meter final at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship. Other athletes published training and competition videos while arguing that the advertisement reduced women’s connection to sports to their physical appearance.
Fortinsky also revealed that Sweeney drove much of the campaign’s creative development.
“It really was Sydney who’s driving a lot of the visuals and the messaging,” he said.
The disclosure was not presented as criticism. Fortinsky praised the actress, said Novig was pleased with her work and argued that some of the hostility came from people whose negative opinions about Sweeney preceded the campaign.
Sweeney’s involvement extended beyond performing. She approached Novig about collaborating and became an equity partner, giving her a financial stake in the attention the commercial generated.
That attention has been substantial. The campaign accumulated more than 40 million Instagram views, while searches for Novig increased dramatically after its release.
Via Instagram, Sweeney appeared to answer critics indirectly by sharing images of prominent athletes who had posed nude or semi-nude for ESPN’s Body Issue.
After gaining 50,000 followers in the ad’s first three days, Sweeney lost more than 200,000 across Sunday and Monday, though the drop represented less than 1 percent of her 25 million-plus audience, according to Social Blade.
Fortinsky’s response explains what Novig intended its campaign to communicate. It does not erase what female athletes believe it communicated instead.
With the company celebrating the commercial’s reach and additional Sweeney campaigns already planned, Novig appears willing to accept that distinction—and the accompanying controversy—as the price of entering the national conversation.
