There is still so much to undress unpack concerning Sydney Sweeney’s semi-nude ad for Novig, so I decided to go straight to the guy who wrote the book on the subject of sex and advertising.
Like, literally. The guy actually wrote the book. His name is Dr. Tom Reichert, the dean of the College of Information and Communications at the University of South Carolina, and the author of Erotic History of Advertising as well as the co-editor of Sex in Advertising: Perspectives on the Erotic Appeal.
Right off the jump, I asked him the most obvious question: Does sex still sell? After all, seeing Sydney Sweeney sans clothes — or for that matter, seeing any number of women sans clothes — is a click away. This isn’t the pre-internet days, when getting your hands on any nudity involved Mission: Impossible levels of planning and execution (unless your friend’s dad was a Playboy subscriber).
“Definitely,” Reichert said. “You’ve obviously got to be much more mindful today. The level of awareness around gender equality and representation is heightened, of course, compared with the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. There’s so much out there that’s available to anybody and everybody, you almost think it takes a lot more to get somebody’s attention than it used to. However, from what I’ve been able to see from the spots, it’s certainly still going to grab attention.”
And grab attention it has. Discussion of the ad, which dropped last Wednesday, is still in heavy rotation in the news cycle. That is borderline incredible in today’s lightning-fast world. And one major reason it’s still being discussed is because female athletes have been outspoken in their displeasure.
Ariarne Titmus, a retired Australian swimmer who won four Olympic gold medals, called the ad a “kick in the face” to women who have spent their lives as athletes. She asked why monetizing women’s bodies and sexualizing women’s sports is still a thing, according to a Guardian story. British sprinter Amy Hunt was a little more direct immediately after a race Sunday, telling the BBC, “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like.”
But wait, there’s more.
American gymnast Gracie Kramer kicked off the “this is what a woman in sport looks like” response that was picked up by swimmers, runners and the Australian Institute of Sport, as detailed in a CNN report. Australian water polo player Tilly Kearns dispensed with any attempt at diplomacy, posting on Instagram that she “absolutely fking hate[s]” the ad.
But, as Reichert pointed out, the ad had nothing to do with athletes, and everything to do with what Novig is selling — namely, betting money on athletes.
“I think the audience that matters is male, like 90/10,” Reichert said. “So they pegged it in terms of the audience.”
As for criticism Novig is getting from women and female athletes, he was blunt: “I don’t think that they care.”
He further noted that using Novig is essentially private.
“You’ve got an app. It’s on your phone. You’re not wearing a T-shirt with Sydney Sweeney on it. Nobody knows that you’re using this app,” he said.
Sex and sports?
Of course, this leads to a second question: Namely, what the hell does a naked Sydney Sweeney have to do with the Patriots moneyline?
“I think at first level, no, it’s not like hair color or toothpaste or mouthwash, something that enhances your sexual appeal,” Reichert said. “But it is relevant as a hedonistic product category. Betting is arousing. It falls right in there with taking risks and drinking and sports and women and cheerleaders and all that. I think there is a connection in the brain where these items all kind of coalesce. I think that’s important to think about.”
Reichert ultimately believes the pairing makes sense.
“I think it’s kind of right on, unfortunately,” he said, adding that “unfortunately” depends on “where you’re coming from.”
And of course, two sides to the coin here. Not all women are outraged by the ad.
Lizard brains
My firstborn was a boy. When my wife was pregnant with our second child, we found out we were about to have a girl. “This is awesome!” was my first thought. A boy, a girl, we already had a dog, insta-Americana, boom.
Then I had a second thought, and I immediately reached out to an old friend of mine, someone who already had daughters.
I’m not proud of what I’m going to admit here, but it doesn’t make it any less true.
“Am I going to look at women differently now?” I asked, meaning … well, I think you know what I mean.
“Nope,” came the instant answer from my friend.
“It’s hardwired. It really is,” Reichert said. While cautioning that he’s “not necessarily the expert” on the evolutionary side, he said the literature suggests the response is instinctual and rooted in millions of years of human development.
But just because men respond to this particular stimulus doesn’t mean it’s not a little lazy.
“If you go back and look at [British ad pioneer] David Ogilvy and advertising, he had no respect for what he called ‘bosoms, beagles, and babies.’ Anybody who threw that into their ads was using the easy way. It was borrowed attention,” Reichert said. “If you’re doing your work, you’re going to do the deep research on what separates you from your competition.”
Well, in this case, the separation is clear. Polymarket may have LeBron James, but Novig has Sydney Sweeney naked.
Sydney or bust?
Another item on the agenda here is, “Is this a naked woman thing, or is this a Sydney Sweeney thing?”
After all, Sweeney A) has been naked a lot B) is no stranger to controversy, as with American Eagle Outfitters’ “genes” ads, and C) has been deemed “MAGA Barbie” by some, which introduces politics into the stew.
Point being: If this was someone left-coded and never nude, like Zendaya, or someone who uses sexuality, but in a more innocent, wink-wink manner, like Sabrina Carpenter, would the outrage be the same?
“Whoever it is, they all have meaning that’s associated with them. Who they are is going to make a difference in how far you can go. Otherwise, it becomes incongruent. It becomes a violation of expectations, in a way,” Reichert said. “I can’t see Sabrina Carpenter doing the same thing Sydney Sweeney did. And if she did, it would be playful — sexual but playful.”
We both decided we couldn’t picture Zendaya taking this one on, however.
And the winner is …
In the end, the ad — love it or hate it — worked. Again, we are a week into this story, and it’s still all over the news, new angles keep popping up, the anger hasn’t died down. That is pretty much a dream scenario for any marketing team.
Love us, hate us, doesn’t matter, just know us. Or as P.T. Barnum once famously (probably) said: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity, as long as they spell your name right.”
Reichert agrees.
“What about GoDaddy? Remember GoDaddy with the Danica Patrick ads? I didn’t know what GoDaddy was, but all of a sudden I went to check it out: What is GoDaddy? What do they offer?” Reichert explained.
And there it is. Whether he liked the ad or not, it got him to find out what GoDaddy was selling.
So add it all up — the outrage, the defense, the nudity, the sports vs. betting angle, the Sweeney-as-a-lightning-rod angle, all of it. I think we can safely figure the final score.
Novig wins going away. Whaddya gonna do? Sports.
