Sydney Sweeney’s topless sports-betting ad ignites debate over sexism, ‘Marmite marketing’ and women’s sport

Dubai: There are Hollywood stars who sell perfume, stars who sell handbags and then there is Sydney Sweeney, who appears to have decided that controversy itself is a perfectly respectable luxury product.

Her latest campaign for sports prediction platform Novig has certainly given us something to talk about. Sweeney appears nude, draped around sporting equipment, while the campaign plays with the language and imagery of sport.

Predictably, the internet has divided itself into camps, with female athletes calling out what they see as the sexualisation of women and the trivialisation of women's sport. And, honestly, this is where the campaign gets interesting.

Because Sweeney isn't some bewildered actress who wandered onto a set and discovered halfway through that the dress was getting smaller. She is an equity holder and strategic partner in Novig, a sport betting platform founded by Jacob Fortinsk, and has been involved in shaping the campaign. She knows exactly what her most valuable assets are, and I don't mean the kind you list on a balance sheet.

She knows her face is recognisable. She knows her incredible body attracts attention. She knows Hollywood has spent the last few years turning her into one of its most bankable blonde bombshells.

Most importantly, she knows that people cannot seem to agree on whether they want to look at her, criticise her for looking good, or do both simultaneously. That is quite a business model.

There is a name for the kind of advertising Novig appears to be playing with: Marmite advertising. You either love it or hate it. The middle ground is almost irrelevant because the real prize is conversation. And Sweeney is proving to be an excellent vehicle for it.

The American Eagle campaign was another masterclass in the economics of attention. Whatever you thought of it, Sweeney and the brand became inseparable from the conversation surrounding it. The campaign escaped the billboard, the social feed and the shop window and became a cultural talking point.

Novig has gone one step further because now women's sport is in the firing line. That is where I have more sympathy for the athletes pushing back.

Women who compete professionally have spent years trying to convince the world that their bodies are not simply decorative. Those bodies are their equipment. They are built through punishing training schedules, injuries, discipline and an almost absurd level of commitment. When you watch an Olympic sprinter, gymnast or swimmer compete, you are watching somebody who has spent a significant portion of her life turning her body into an extraordinary machine.

So I understand the irritation when that sporting imagery is taken out of context and turned into a playground for a Hollywood star's sex appeal.

But I also think there is a slightly awkward question lurking behind the outrage.

Would this campaign have caused quite the same fuss if Sydney Sweeney weren't Sydney Sweeney?

Pretty privilege is real, and Hollywood has always been built on it. Beautiful people are given opportunities because they are beautiful. They are photographed differently, dressed differently and, very often, marketed differently. But beauty comes with its own strange tax once you become famous enough.

People begin to assume that everything you do is calculated around your appearance. They scrutinise what you wear, how much skin you show, whether you have had work done, whether you are using your sexuality cleverly or cheaply. The beautiful woman who knows she is beautiful can become particularly irritating to an audience that would much rather she pretend she doesn't know. Sweeney clearly knows. Why shouldn't she?

She is an actress, a celebrity and now a businesswoman. If she understands that her appearance has commercial value and wants to turn that into equity rather than simply a fee, you could argue that she is doing exactly what Hollywood teaches its stars to do. The problem isn't that she is bodacious and lad-mag perfect. The problem is that the campaign seems to need women's sport as a prop to make that sex appeal work.

That is a subtle but important distinction.

There is nothing inherently scandalous about women posing nude. Female athletes have done it themselves, often beautifully, and with far more interesting things to say about the physicality of their professions. The issue is what the naked body is being used to sell and whose story is being told. In this case, it is not really a story about athletic achievement. It is a story about Sweeney, sex and sports betting.

And perhaps that is why the campaign feels slightly cheekier than it has any right to be.

Because Sweeney isn't merely participating in the attention economy. She has become one of its more glamorous operators. Her currency is provocation. American Eagle gave us the preview. Novig feels like the full Hollywood premiere, complete with a deliberately tiny outfit and a queue of angry critics outside the theatre.

The clever part is that Sweeney doesn't have to win the argument. Novig doesn't need everyone to approve of the campaign. It simply needs everyone to know the name.

That is Marmite marketing at its most efficient. Love it, hate it, write about it, post about it, argue about it over dinner. Just don't scroll past it.

And perhaps that is why I find myself less interested in asking whether Sydney Sweeney is allowed to be sexy. Of course she is. That question feels positively Victorian.

The more interesting question is whether she has mistaken being provocative for being interesting. Because there is a difference.

Hollywood has always understood that glamour gets you through the door. The real trick is making sure there is something worth saying once everyone has turned to look. Sweeney certainly got the room's attention. Now the athletes are asking what, exactly, she wanted us to see.