The Euphoria star has not shown any public sign that the criticism changed her view of the campaign. Since the backlash began, she has shared additional footage from the advertisement.
LADbible said it contacted representatives for Sweeney and Novig for comment. No further response was reported.
Why did the Novig campaign face criticism?
Critics argued that the advertisement relied on sexualising a woman to promote sport, reinforcing a familiar problem for women trying to establish themselves in an industry still largely run by men.
Four-time Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus was among the most prominent people to object.
“I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” Titmus said. “How do we live in a world where monetising a woman’s body and sexualising women’s sport is still a thing?”
Marissa Womack, manager of game day promotions and programming for Minor League Baseball team the Harrisburg Senators, also criticised the campaign. She said her objection had nothing to do with jealousy or insecurity about Sweeney’s appearance.
Instead, Womack said the issue was working in a “male-dominated field where we are constantly having to prove why we belong.”
“It’s about having passions and joy working in this industry and when the only representation is sexualization, you see less and less young women wanting to pursue this industry,” she added.
Has Sweeney faced advertising backlash before?
This was not Sweeney’s first revealing commercial appearance. She has previously modelled lingerie for her own brand, Syrn, although promoting lingerie while wearing lingerie is at least a fairly direct arrangement.
She also faced criticism over an American Eagle jeans advertisement built around a play on the words “genes” and “jeans.” In the commercial, Sweeney said: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.”
The campaign received a wave of negative responses. Sweeney later said the scale of the reaction “definitely was a surprise,” adding that she missed much of it because she was filming and had put her phone away.
The Novig controversy has now added another disputed campaign to that list. The follower decline is measurable, but with an audience still numbering around 25 million, it has not seriously reduced her online reach. For now, the main result is another debate about whether women’s sport needs more visibility, or simply fewer advertisements pretending nudity is the same thing.
