USA | Sydney Sweeney's scandal ad: Oops!... I did it again

Sydney Sweeney promotes sports betting in a sexist manner and is criticized by female athletes. Photo: Scott A Garfitt/Invision/dpa The American actress Sydney Sweeney, known from the cult series "Euphoria" and "White Lotus", is criticized for an advertising clip. »You think you know sports? Prove it!”, the 29-year-old challenges the audience in the clip. With various sports accessories and balls, she usually poses naked in front of the camera - or almost - and shows all the different sports that you can bet on with the sports betting provider "Novig".

The core of the criticism is not her collaboration with and promotion of such a destructive industry as sports betting, which brings ruin to countless people addicted to gambling, but rather the image of women that Sweeney conveys in sports. Well-known athletes are now making their disappointment and anger public about it on the Internet.

Former Australian swimmer and four-time Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus explains that Sweeney's campaign is "not only a slap in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her skills, but also to every woman who values sport for what it really is - teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, solidarity." In response to Sweeney's advertising clip, a new trend has developed on the Internet: numerous female athletes are posting videos of themselves in which they simply practice their sport under the Keyword: “This is what sport looks like.”

Ironically, Sweeney may have gained insight into the world of women's sports through her recent film. In “That’s Why The Lady Is A Champ” she played Christy Martin, the most successful female boxer of the 90s. The film is about Martin's various struggles with not being taken seriously as a woman in boxing, her boxing matches themselves, but also the abusive relationship in which she was trapped.

It's not the first time that Sweeney, who earned a degree in entrepreneurship from the University of California alongside her acting career, has been harshly criticized for a commercial. A year ago she advertised for the US fashion label “American Eagle” in a campaign entitled “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans”.

The reference to great genes, which are pronounced the same as "jeans" in English, drew an outcry. Sweeney was accused of flirting with far-right propaganda in Trump's America, i.e. white supremacy and eugenics. In the advertisement in question, the blonde with blue eyes explained: “Jeans (or genes) are passed on from parents to their offspring and often determine characteristics such as hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue." Each clip ended with: "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans." 

After a long silence, she herself explained that she was surprised by the reaction to the jeans advertisement: »Everyone who knows me knows that I always try to bring people together. I am against hate and division.” The provocative advertising clips probably helped her in cultivating her own attention economy. And the feminist outcry probably won't prevent future film deals.

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