WNBA Star Torches Sweeney Backlash

Smartphone screen showing NFL and DraftKings app icons — Photo: Tada Images / Shutterstock

Sophie Cunningham looked straight at the outrage machine over Sydney Sweeney’s gambling ad and asked a question nobody wanted to answer: why are girls mad?

Quick Take

Sydney Sweeney’s ad for betting app Novig showed her in minimal clothing, sparking criticism from female athletes who called it sexist.
WNBA star Sophie Cunningham called the ad “inauthentic” but rejected claims it disrespected women’s sports.
Cunningham argued the ad targeted men, not women, saying it was simply “men, sports, naked women”.
Novig’s chief executive said Sweeney herself helped drive the ad’s visual direction.
Sweeney briefly lost hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers after the campaign launched.

An Ad Built To Grab Attention Did Exactly That

Sydney Sweeney appeared in the Novig campaign wearing next to nothing, covered mostly by footballs and other sports gear. Reporters described the imagery as “nude or minimally clad”. The ad spread fast online. It also drew swift criticism from female athletes who said it reduced women’s sports to a marketing prop instead of celebrating real competition.

Olympic athletes and other public figures piled on within days, arguing the campaign sexualized women under the guise of promoting sports. Major outlets from CNN to the New York Times covered the backlash as a legitimate cultural flashpoint, not a fringe complaint. That coverage gave the controversy real weight instead of letting it fade as a one-day story.

Cunningham Calls Out The Outrage, Not The Actress

Sophie Cunningham, an Indiana Fever guard, addressed the firestorm on her podcast and refused to join the pile-on. She said the ad felt “inauthentic,” even asking whether Sweeney gambles on sports at all. But she stopped short of trashing Sweeney herself, instead turning her fire on the people losing their minds over it.

Cunningham’s sharpest line cut through the noise: “It is a gambling ad: men, sports, naked women. Of course, that’s going to draw attention”. Her point was simple. The ad was never marketed to women’s sports fans. It was built for sports bettors, a group her podcast co-host estimated is roughly three-quarters male. Treating it as an attack on female athletes missed the target audience entirely.

A Business Decision, Not A Referendum On Feminism

Cunningham did admit some personal discomfort, calling the ad “morally weird” while still telling Sweeney to “go do your thing, sis”. That’s the honest, grounded reaction most Americans actually have to racy advertising: mild unease mixed with a shrug, not a demand for boycotts or apologies. She even complimented Sweeney directly, saying “I like her. She is beautiful. She is hot”.

Novig’s own chief executive backed up the idea that this was a calculated business move, not an accident. He said Sweeney was actively “driving” the creative direction of the shoot. That detail matters. It suggests an actress and a company both chasing buzz, not a brand exploiting an unwitting star. Outrage aimed at Sweeney for “letting” this happen ignores that she reportedly helped design it.

Why The Backlash Fits A Familiar Pattern

Sports betting ads have leaned on sexualized imagery for years, and researchers have found a large share of the genre relies on exactly that kind of appeal. This wasn’t some shocking break from advertising norms. It was another entry in a long-running playbook that trades attention for controversy, and controversy for free publicity.

The numbers back that up. Sweeney lost roughly 137,000 Instagram followers in a single day, then another 66,000 the next, according to Social Blade data reported by USA Today. But visibility and backlash aren’t the same as damage. A campaign designed to be talked about succeeded at being talked about, follower dips included.

Common Sense Beats Manufactured Outrage

Cunningham’s response resonated because it treated adults like adults. An actress posed in a gambling ad aimed at men. Some people found it tacky. Others found it fine. Neither reaction requires a national referendum on women’s dignity. Her willingness to say the quiet part out loud, that this was a men’s betting ad and nothing more, cut through a controversy that many outlets stretched far beyond what the ad itself actually claimed to be.

WNBA star Sophie Cunningham has a mixed take on Sydney Sweeney’s controversial NOVIG ad.

She called the sports connection “inauthentic” and said she doesn’t particularly like the ad, but questioned why so much anger is being directed at Sweeney herself: “Why are girls mad?”

Her… pic.twitter.com/05pueGrMz5

— Bhavesh Gujrati (@Bhaveshlivelife) September 21, 2026

The lesson here isn’t about Sweeney or Novig specifically. It’s about how quickly online outrage can outrun the facts of what an ad was even trying to do. Cunningham didn’t excuse everything about the campaign. She just refused to pretend a betting commercial was a crime against feminism, and that distinction is exactly what got lost in the noise.