Sophie Cunningham has broken her silence and weighed in on Sydney Sweeney’s racy ad for a sports prediction site which has female athletes everywhere up in arms.
It’s the moment that the Internet has been waiting for since the Euphoria actress launched the ad campaign for Novig last week in which she poses nude while covering herself up with various pieces of sports equipment.
Cunningham, the outspoken Indiana Fever guard, addressed the viral ad – which has been on display in Times Square in downtown Manhattan this week – on Thursday’s episode of the No Hesitation podcast.
What did Sophie Cunningham say?
The WNBA opened by admitting that she has “so many takes” over the ad and opened with a burning question about Sweeney.
“First of all, does she even gamble on sports? It’s so unauthentic,” Cunningham said. “Am I surprised how she represented the brand? That’s what she made her whole career off. Don’t get me wrong, I like her.
“She sticks to her guns and she does her thing and she’s her. Props to her.
“Do I like it? Like that particular ad? Not really. I think it’s like, ‘what are we doing?’
“But again, I’m not surprised. That’s what she’s known for. She’s making her money. Go do your thing, sis.”
What does Cunningham think about the backlash?
But while the outspoken WNBA star wasn’t a fan of the racy commercial itself, Cunningham didn’t understand why the backlash has reached the level that it has.
“But why are girls mad? That is literally what she does. Why is anyone mad?” Cunningham rhetorically asked. “It is a gambling ad: Men, sports, pretty much naked women. Of course, that’s going to draw attention.
“Again, do I agree with it? Morally, I think it’s kind of weird, but each to their own. Go do your thing, sis.”
Cunningham — a professional athlete herself, obviously — also explained that she didn’t believe the ad was an attack on women in sports.
“At the end of the day, I’m really loving seeing all these girls who are powerful, strong, showing young girls what it looks like to be an athlete,” she said. “I don’t think the ad was coming for women in sport.”
She also added some words of encouragement for young, female athletes who might’ve been discouraged by the ad.
“I just want girls to know, don’t shrink. Don’t shrink to make other people feel better about themselves when you’re born to stick out,” Cunningham said. “I will say though, I can understand when you first see that ad that like it could kind of deflate women because it’s like we’ve worked so hard to get a little bit of respect around here.
“But then when you really think about it, it’s like, screw it, let that girl do her thing. This has nothing to do with us.”
She also recalled meeting Sweeney last year at a NASCAR event, but admitted that she only spent “like five minutes with her.”
“I met her, but do I know her? No,” she said.
Did Novig blame Sweeney for the controversy?
Earlier this week during a panel at Front Office Sports’ Asset Class conference, Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky addressed the controversy, defending the intended message behind the campaign.
“As a company, we’re hugely supportive of women’s sports, I think it’s a huge component of our platform,” Fortinsky said on Tuesday. “We never intended to portray female sports.”
“Sydney’s an actress. We’re a prediction market that is focused on sports, and that was the story she was communicating.”
Novig and Sweeney, in particular, had been called out by several female athletes over sexualizing women’s sports.
However, Fortinsky then made it clear that it was the Euphoria star that was a driving force behind the ad campaign and the visuals.
“It was a very exciting process to work with her both on the commercial side and the creative side,” he said. “Sydney was driving a lot of the visuals and the messaging.”
While Sweeney posted several images from ESPN magazine’s The Body issues on her Instagram Story this past weekend, she has yet to publicly comment on the ad.