In less than two years, Sydney Sweeney has had two campaign scandals involving American Eagle and her own brand, SYRN.
The “Housemaid” actress has been accused of pushing white supremacy and eugenics taglines such as “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”
In January, she got in trouble after climbing the Hollywood sign and throwing her intimate clothing on top.
The FilmLA film office said Sweeney had permission to film near the landmark, but not to touch or climb it.
But ruffling feathers might be her favorite hobby. And this time, she thought comparing herself to icons like Serena Williams would calm the backlash.
Last week, sports betting platform Novig released a commercial starring Sweeney in the buff, wearing nothing but various sports gear.
Online madness occurred, and on Sept. 13, Sweeney made a nonverbal response that very loudly called out the hypocrisy.
Sweeney posted photos of Williams and other professional athletes posing without their clothes for ESPN’s Body Issue, drawing comparisons to her Novig commercial. The covers also featured Jason Kelce, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Megan Rapinoe.
ESPN’s Body Issue began in 2009 with a mission “to celebrate the incredible power of the athletic form,” according to their website.
Further down on the website, it reads, “It’s inspired a deeper appreciation for what our bodies are capable of, the power they possess, the flaws they force us to accept, what they can overcome and where they can take us.”
In a separate turn-the-other-cheek response, Sweeney followed up on Instagram with still images from the Novig campaign.
In the first 10-slide post, the “Housemaid” actress sat on her heels pressing two footballs up against her bare chest.
In another picture, Sweeney used a basketball to support her lower back as she reclined and covered her chest with her arms. The left side of her backside, as well as her legs and abdomen, was completely exposed.
One slide featured a video of her wearing Novig boxers while holding a football to her chest.
As the camera zoomed into her face, the actress looked into the lens and said, “It’s gamedayyy.” She repeated the phrase in the caption before tagging Novig.
The photos come from her “Just Sports” campaign with Novig. In the commercial, she posed completely bare while spinning a basketball on one finger in one shot.
In a separate scene, she wore nothing but football shoulder pads while using a football to cover her groin. The entire montage followed this same cheeky theme.
Several women athletes pushed back with sports videos, accusing Sweeney’s campaign of sending the wrong message about women in sports.
Several women athletes have made their own movement to call out Sweeney’s campaign. They each shared videos of themselves performing their own sports, and in the caption, they name-dropped Sweeney for sexualizing women in sports.
NCAA champion and three-time All-American gymnast Gracie Kramer blasted Sweeney and her campaign with a video of her gymnastics skills.
“IDK what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sports looks like,” she wrote over an Instagram video. She doubled down in her caption, adding “because it really is that deep.”
Two-time water polo Olympian Tilly Kearns made a similar post, uploading a short reel of her highlights in her sport.
“I absolutely fing hate Sydney Sweeney’s new sports ad,” Kearns wrote on the video. In the caption, she said, “Like what are we doing … so much worse than I imagined too. Here’s some real women sports content.”
2026 Olympian skier Cassidy Gray, Olympian track and field athlete Bree Masters, British runner Amy Hunt, and more shared similar messages publicly.
Fans in Sweeney’s comments further slammed her response, calling it “a total disappointment.”
Others called it “So offensive on so many levels and accused her of being an attention seeker.
“Have you ever heard of wearing clothes?” one person wondered, while another piled on, “Yikes.”
The comparison falls flat because Williams’ ESPN “Body Issue” photos served a different purpose.
Pointing out the irony, one person said, “Yeah, Serena Williams was number 1 in women’s tennis and posed like that for a sports magazine. Sydney Sweeney does nothing and advertises a sports betting platform; it’s practically the same thing, right?”
Another said, “Do you genuinely think this ad is going to make us change our minds about a Serena Williams match?”
Williams did not use the 2013 shoot to provoke controversy or turn a risqué campaign into a spectacle. The tennis icon presented her athletic body as a source of strength, discipline, and pride. She was also eight months pregnant with her first child in the photos.
Sweeney, meanwhile, leaned into the provocative conversation surrounding her movie roles. Fans saw her Williams post as an attempt to justify the ad rather than address the backlash.
For now, Sweeney has cemented her brand. Her breakout role in “Euphoria” included at least one scene each season where she undressed and exposed her body.
Soon that was all anyone talked about, while her actual on-screen talent was overshadowed.
She carried that buzz into the entrepreneurial space by launching her lingerie collection, SYRN, with herself as the lead model. Her provocative imagery proves it wasn’t all bad, as her lingerie line sold out within hours of launch.
Sydney Sweeney has faced backlash from female athletes over her nearly nude ad for a sports prediction market
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) September 14, 2026
She responded by sharing images of athletes who have posed nude pic.twitter.com/jQprd4SIhm
