Sydney Sweeney naked ad controversy: what’s she playing at? - The Latest

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0:45The level of sexualization is kind of cartoonish. It's more than you would expect from like a Playboy shoot. You can trade this sport and this sport. How about this? It's a sports prediction market. They don't care about representation of women in sport. They care about making money. I think it's fair to say that Sidney Sweeney is the same. From the Guardians today in Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hoff. So Sidney Sweeney, the actor that became a big name after her part in Euphoria, that very groundbreaking show, has made headlines, made controversy all over again with another advert.

1:26Elle Hunt, you're a Guardian features writer. What is this advert? Because it is something to behold. Yes, it's certainly very memorable. This is a campaign for the sports prediction market Novig, which shows Sydney Sweeney in, I'd say, nearly entirely undressed with various sports paraphernalia, acting out sports. In one image, she is sitting on top of a basketball hoop, spinning a basketball on one finger, entirely naked. In another, she is, again, entirely naked, but for some shoulder pads, such as used in American football, with a football covering her groin, another one over her breasts. I think the most clothes she wears is a pair of knickers while playing tennis.

2:17so it's extremely sexualized even by the degree that we're sort of used to seeing these days and for that reason it's garnered a lot of instant immediate attention. Yes notably from female sports people and athletes who are infuriated to quote one about this advert you know given how much work has been put in in the last few years to change perceptions of female sportsmanship you know we've seen that huge change in female football here in the UK what has some of that reaction been because it's not just statements there is now a sort of online campaign from female sportswomen saying this is what an actual athlete looks like and posting photos of themselves playing sports yes yeah I mean it the infuriated quote from the Olympic swimmer um ariani titmus who um said that we you know what we're all thinking which is that this sort of bullshit marketing was a um thing of the past uh we've also had kind of commentary from water polo medalist tilly kearns who said uh she hated the new sports ad champion boxer sky nicholson said the ad was about making a mockery of women in sport um and that sort of thing uh my favorite quote is from the female athlete project which said it's incredible they could fit so much misogyny into 40 seconds.

3:43Yeah, that is a good point. Well made. So how has Sydney Sweeney justified this? Because it's been reported that the CEO of Novig claims that he was approached by her to do this campaign in return for an equity partnership. Yeah, exactly. This is an extension of her moving away from, well, not moving away from acting, but certainly diversifying at her career as an actor with not only brand endorsements, but trying to kind of take a stake in the companies that she promotes on the acting level and as well that she does production credits, which means that sort of building her career in Hollywood.

4:28Slash rampant capitalist is not like a hyphenate that we're used to, but perhaps we should be getting more used to. I mean, Sidney Sweeney is defining among the kind of current crop of big name actors for doing a brand deals for really a lot of different things. And often in this extremely high profile, controversial way, where this would be partly why you would get her to kind of promote your company now, because she does not only garner so much attention, but seems to be very, very comfortable with doing that. So obviously, there's been this backlash to this campaign pretty much instantly. But her own response has been to post on Instagram, pictures of female athletes such as Serena Williams posing naked with the inference being there's no commentary she's made around it but showing that you know actual athletes do pose naked as well which is quite disingenuous given that it's that's their choice you know to appear in that way they still have those skills and that success where Sydney Swinger is really just picking up the balls and posing with them effectively.

5:34Yeah we have no proof of her baseball abilities for example. I think Lucy we can assume that those aren't really a part of her many talents. Let's make no assumptions out. Yes. She described it in a statement as well as posting those images as a fun idea. The concept is simple, cut through the noise and put the focus entirely on sports. I think there will be some who would debate whether that has proved successful. Sydney Sweeney does have form here. This is not the only controversial campaign that she's taken part in. She did an advert for American Eagle, the clothing company last year, which featured the line, Sydney Sweeney has great genes.

6:19It was an advert that was extremely controversial because of the implications that that phrase implies and was celebrated by the American right, including the US President Donald Trump. Yes, I mean, she's gaining this reputation as a rampant capitalist because it seems that not only does she do a lot of brand deals for all kinds of different products, they are frequently very controversial in this knowing, stoking controversy kind of way. Her response to the backlash over that jeans ad when she did eventually speak about it was to say something like, I did a jean ad, you know, the reaction was such a surprise.

7:00but with this promotional partnership for Novik not only does she approach the company about doing it in exchange for a stake in the company the CEO has said in interviews you know, Sidney's great at captivating audiences and being centre of attention his quote was, in some sense it forces us into the national discourse so I think it's fair to say although she never really elaborates on her kind of strategy this is part of the plan You know, to get as much attention, it's very predictable that I think that we would have this, you know, understandable outrage from female athletes. But also just the level of sexualisation is kind of cartoonish.

7:44It's more than you would expect from like a Playboy shoot. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I guess I had never heard of this company until this morning. Now I have. Perhaps they knew that this was going to cause such outcry. that that was perhaps by design, which is a really interesting point. Well, it's worth looking as well at the fact of a sports prediction market in that they are kind of operating on a sort of new element, like new level of commerce, and it's not necessarily that well regulated and it's controversial in and of itself. So Drake, for example, has been doing a lot of work with prediction markets and crypto gambling kind of platforms.

8:24So this is a sort of new area for celebrities who are comfortable using their public image to shore up those brand partnerships that are more lasting and more lucrative than, say, doing an ad for a shampoo or something like that. Sydney Sweeney found her fame because of being cast in Euphoria, a show that was provocative by design in terms of its representation of, you know, drug taking sex in young people. Sydney Sweeney's character was was kind of particularly sexualized, one could say. I guess the sort of counter-feminist argument might be Sydney Sweeney has the right to choose if she wants to make money through her body in this way.

9:11But put against the reaction from female sportswomen, I mean, I know which side I'm on, but, you know, one could make that case. One could. One could. I think what kind of is the striking thing about Sydney Sweeney in particular is the teeth behind her kind of commercial decisions. She has been moving into the more kind of entrepreneurial space. She has her own lingerie line, which equally sexualized, has to be said. In the past, she's also, she would tend to sort of Jeff Bezos' wedding, despite really having kind of no known connection to him. And it was seen as her sort of, you know, she was maybe going to be doing work in Amazon MGM Studios.

10:00I think he wants her for the next Bond girl. She really is kind of working in this world where it is about being around wealthy people and using her celebrity image and renown as an actor to kind of position herself in this area of kind of like intense capitalistic commerce. I think the thing I would say to the idea that like maybe Sydney Sweeney has a right to kind of bear her body in this way is that, yeah, sure she does, but there is the level of disingenuousness that she kind of falls back on in the case of controversy, where it is, oh, you know, famous athletes have posed naked, I'm just doing the same, and she's not doing the same.

10:40Again, with the American Eagle ad, I just did a Jean ad. I think it does her a disservice in some ways to pretend that this is kind of unpredictable or not indeed the entire point of the campaign. to generate this controversy and that she's not ultimately benefiting from it, making huge amounts of money from it. So although I understand the response from female athletes, because it must be enraging, to see it as a fair attempt to represent female athletes as a more success in sports is not quite the idea either. This was never intended to be that. Again, it's a sports prediction market. They don't care about representation of women in sport.

11:21They care about making money. I think it's fair to say that Tini Sweeney is the same. Well, it feels representative in so many ways of the times we're living in, particularly in America. Elle, thank you so much. Thank you. That's it for today. My huge thanks again to Elle Hunt, Guardian Features writer. You can keep up with all her work over at theguardian.com as well as our coverage of this story. And I really recommend listening to today's episode of our sister podcast, Politics Weekly. Pippa Creera and Kieran Stacey will be boring into the details of the new£72 million donations to Reform UK.

11:57Thanks for listening to this episode of The Latest. Today in Focus will be back in your feeds tomorrow morning. The Latest will be back tomorrow night. This episode was produced by Angus Neal. The senior producer was Ryan Ramgobin. The executive producer was Zoe Hitch. And it was presented by me, Lucy Hoff.

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