In this op-ed, Cronulla Sharks winger and client experience manager at Weld Stories Cassie Staples writes that while Sydney Sweeney’s ad doubtless kicked goals for Novig metrics-wise, it shows that brands are still not treating female athletes with the respect they deserve.
By now, you’ve seen Sydney Sweeney’s new campaign for Novig, a sports trading app. She wears next to nothing, mimes her way through tennis, golf, baseball and hockey, and talks about punters being able to bet on “just sports”.
My first reaction? I put my head in my hands. I play for the NRLW Cronulla Sharks and the Fiji Bulikula, Fiji’s national women’s rugby league team. I also spend my days as client experience manager at content and creative agency Weld Stories. So I watched that ad from both sides at once: as an athlete, and as someone who helps shape campaigns for a living.
And here’s my take: Sydney Sweeney isn’t the problem. The way brands represent women in sport is.
We all understand what this ad is trading on: sex sells. I’d bet this campaign has already outperformed its targets many times over. But at what cost?
It feels like for every step forward, we take 10 steps back. It’s been a record-breaking few years for women’s rugby league – viewership for the 2025 Grand Final passed 1.8 million, with the Women’s State of Origin pulling in another three million. AFLW attendance (up 43 per cent) and the AFC Women’s Asian Cup final (over 3.2 million viewers) are telling the same story. More people than ever are tuning in to watch the power of sportswomen. And still, some brands see relevance in representing a woman’s place in the sporting industry as something sexual.
As four-time Olympic gold medallist Ariarne Titmus said on Instagram, the ad is “not only a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every woman who enjoys sports for what it really is – teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, unity.”
She asked the question a lot of us are asking: how do we still live in a world where monetising and sexualising women’s sport is normal?
Where is the skill, strength, sacrifice and reality of women in sport? The euphoria of a win. The exhaustion after a full day at the office followed by a gruelling evening training session. The balance of family, work and fitness. My reality is blood, bruises and exhaustion. It’s not always a pretty picture – and there is real beauty in that.
I’ve loved watching people around the world pick up that idea, inspired by American gymnast Gracie Kramer, who posted a video of herself competing under the words “this is what a woman in sport looks like” in an Instagram post that’s been liked more than a million times. I got tingles watching British sprinter Amy Hunt, still panting after finishing fourth in the 200m at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, say: “This is what women in sport look like. Muscles. Hard work, blood, sweat, tears.”
This is what women’s sport in its honest form looks like. And if people are turning out in stadiums to watch it, packing out pubs to watch it, crowding around their TVs at home to watch it, tell me why that same representation can’t be leveraged by brands. It’s a hundred times more powerful than anything Novig put on screen. And if brands don’t pick up what companies like Novig are leaving on the field, they’re missing an open opportunity.
The real picture of women in sport is pulling focus around the world. Invest in it. And to those brands who already are, keep running the ball.
The challenge for other brands isn’t complicated. Create powerful, authentic representations of women athletes and you will drown out the noise around campaigns like Novig’s – they will be viewed as tired, outdated, out of touch. And eventually, I believe, without a meaningful audience. That’s the work I get to do at Weld Stories every day, helping brands find the real stories that connect with what people really want, instead of reaching for the easy ones. As an independent, women-owned-and-run business, Weld Stories is driven to create useful, informative and inspiring content.
The more of us telling those stories properly, the sooner ads like Novig’s stop getting made at all.
