{"id":625697,"date":"2026-09-15T21:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625697\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T21:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:04:09","slug":"sydney-sweeneys-charmless-gambling-ad-a-grim-reminder-of-the-page-three-days-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625697\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Sweeney\u2019s charmless gambling ad a grim reminder of the Page Three days \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not sure too many people had even heard of Novig before they trolled us with a new ad<\/a> featuring the actor Sydney Sweeney<\/a>, so I\u2019d imagine the US sports betting company has been sitting back and thinking \u201cmission accomplished\u201d. Anyone who has followed the reaction to the ad knows who Novig are now.<\/p>\n

But this should never have been a Sweeney-bashing thing. She is allowed to be beautiful and glamorous and, if that\u2019s what she wants, use that in her advertising. She\u2019s not stupid \u2013 she\u2019s a generational pin-up and knew what would get attention. <\/p>\n

She is also a business partner with and equity holder in Novig, so both sides evidently decided this would work to promote the company.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s never been averse to controversy, as we saw with her American Eagle advertising campaign. Promoting women\u2019s sports has never been her thing, nor has feminism in any form. It\u2019s not her wheelhouse.<\/p>\n

But . . . watching that ad, it was like flipping back to the Page Three days. It just looked ridiculous, silly and outdated. It was like a parody. I thought we\u2019d moved on from this stuff, but here we are. <\/p>\n

Then again, the gambling<\/a> industry isn\u2019t renowned for morality or progression. And whatever about the debate over women in sport in all of this, we shouldn\u2019t lose sight of the reality that this is a clever ad, featuring a sexualised celebrity, that targets largely younger men who engage with sports through their phones, through social media. It encourages them to gamble \u2013 and we all know how damaging that can be. That\u2019s probably what should be the chief concern in all of this. <\/p>\n

So, for all the times Sweeney says \u201csports\u201d in the ad, it\u2019s not about sport at all \u2013 it\u2019s about gambling.<\/p>\n

Still, I\u2019ve been heartened by the response from so many sportswomen to this, such as the outstanding English sprinter Amy Hunt. They\u2019ve fought back against this representation of women, which has left us feeling like we\u2019re stuck in a time warp. <\/p>\n

\"EnglishEnglish sprinter Amy Hunt has criticised the Novig ad featuring Sydney Sweeney. Photograph: Martin Rickett\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a visceral reaction. Women are already so underrepresented in advertising. We want to know what goes in to becoming someone of Hunt\u2019s stature, rather than seeing Sweeney sitting naked on a basketball hoop. Which looked decidedly uncomfortable. <\/p>\n

We want to see hard work worshipped over celebrity. Women who put blood, sweat and tears into the pursuit of reaching their goals \u2013 they\u2019re the kind of people we want to see lauded. That\u2019s how we want to celebrate women, rather than sexualising them and having expectations of them looking a certain way.<\/p>\n

Sweeney was chosen to represent the \u2018ideal\u2019 woman, but most \u2018normal\u2019 women do not relate to that imagery. And certainly not sportswomen who give every last ounce of effort to become outstanding athletes. <\/p>\n

You don\u2019t want young people\u2019s minds being framed by ads like this, especially those of young men. You want them to know this ad isn\u2019t healthy for their mothers, their sisters or any of the women in their lives. Or for them. <\/p>\n

I expect no better from the gambling industry, but I\u2019d like to think companies outside that world won\u2019t take a similar route. You just hope this ad will fizzle out, that we\u2019ll forget about it soon enough and it\u2019ll go back to, say, the 1980s where it belongs.<\/p>\n

If we can see more representation of women lifting up other women, and being brilliant in any walk of life, that will live longer in the memory than this ridiculous rage bait. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m not sure too many people had even heard of Novig before they trolled us with a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,2124,40,38,41,39,59268],"class_list":["post-625697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sydney-sweeney","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-women-in-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}