Sydney Sweeney has found herself at the centre of a fresh row over women, nudity and sport after her controversial Novig advert was compared with ESPN's The Body Issue. After criticism of the campaign, Sweeney shared images from ESPN featuring famous athletes posing nude, appearing to draw a comparison between her campaign and the publication's long-running tradition of photographing elite athletes.
The actress appeared nude in Novig's September 2026 campaign, launched on 9 September 2026, with sporting equipment positioned strategically over her body while the advert repeatedly pushed the phrase 'just sports'. The campaign quickly attracted criticism from female athletes and some social-media users, who questioned whether the advert was presenting women in sport as athletes or primarily as sexualised advertising imagery.
Sweeney Brings ESPN Into the Controversy
After criticism of the Novig campaign, Sweeney shared images from ESPN's The Body Issue on Instagram Stories, highlighting nude shoots featuring athletes including Nneka Ogwumike, Serena Williams and Megan Rapinoe. The posts appeared to draw a comparison between her campaign and ESPN's long-running tradition of photographing elite athletes nude or semi-nude.
ESPN combined sports and nudity for over a decade.
— Dominique Clare (@DomClare) September 14, 2026
So, what is your true issue with the Sydney Sweeney ad? Is it because it’s an ad? Is it because she’s hot?
If it’s mixing sports and nudity that may sexualize female athletes, why didn’t you have an issue with ESPN? pic.twitter.com/VxUIrskCex
An X user, Dom Clare, also argued that ESPN had mixed sports and nudity for more than a decade, questioning whether the objection to Sweeney's images was linked to their use in an advert. However, some commenters saw a significant difference between an editorial project centred on elite athletes and a commercial campaign for a sports prediction platform.
Nneka Ogwumike Is the Athlete in the Picture
Nneka Ogwumike's 2017 Body Issue appearance illustrates the distinction critics are making. The Los Angeles Sparks star had just won her first WNBA championship, and she described taking part in the shoot as something she had wanted to do for years because of the elite group of athletes selected for the issue.
Ogwumike also described the experience as a chance to show a more personal side of herself, while the surrounding story focused on the physical work behind an elite athlete's body. Her basketball career and achievements remained central to the context of the photographs, rather than the images existing solely as standalone advertising material.
ESPN Built The Body Issue Around Sport
ESPN has described The Body Issue as a project designed to showcase the bodies and personalities of the best athletes in the world. Its 2017 edition featured 23 athletes across 16 photo shoots, with 352 crew members involved and months of preparation going into the project.
The production also repeatedly tied the photographs to sporting identity, with athletes photographed in environments connected to their disciplines. That included a basketball setting for Ogwumike and detailed recreations and sporting equipment elsewhere in the issue, helping reinforce the connection between the athletes' bodies and the sports in which they competed.
Critics See a Different Purpose in Novig
The criticism of Sweeney's advert is not simply about nudity, but about what the nudity is being used to communicate. Female athletes including British sprinter Amy Hunt and four-time Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus have criticised the campaign, with their responses focusing on the physical work, training and sacrifice associated with competing at elite level.
Some social-media commenters took the criticism even further, with one describing Sweeney's advert as pandering and another arguing that ESPN's The Body Issue was not comparable because it was not a gambling advertisement. Others pointed out that Sweeney is an actress rather than a professional athlete, making the 'athlete' distinction one of the central complaints surrounding the comparison.
The 'Just Sports' Line Adds Another Twist
The advert's repeated 'just sports' message has also become a key part of the criticism because Sweeney is not presented as a professional competitor demonstrating her sporting ability. Instead, the campaign uses the visual language of sport around a celebrity promoting Novig's commercial platform.
That does not automatically make the campaign equivalent to a sexualised depiction of women in sport, and opinions about the advert remain subjective. But it helps explain why critics reject the idea that showing a nude woman beside sporting equipment is enough to make the Novig campaign comparable with ESPN's athlete-focused photography.
The Athlete Difference Is the Real Flashpoint
The controversy ultimately comes down to a deceptively simple distinction: ESPN's Body Issue was built around athletes first, while Sweeney's Novig campaign was built around an actress promoting a commercial product. That difference does not settle whether either approach is empowering, provocative or appropriate, but it does explain why critics say the two projects should not automatically be treated as the same thing.
Sweeney's decision to invoke ESPN has therefore added another layer to an already heated advertising controversy. For supporters, it raises a question about whether nudity is judged differently depending on who is photographed, while for critics, the distinction is simpler: the body may be nude in both cases, but the sporting achievement behind it is not.
