Kelly Stafford, the wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, has offered her two cents on the controversy involving Hollywood star Sydney Sweeney.
Last week, Sweeney made headlines for starring in a “Just Sports” ad for Novig, a prediction market. The “Euphoria” actress ditched her clothes for this campaign and opted to cover herself with footballs, tennis rackets and other sports-related equipment.
Several female athletes, including Olympic gold medalist Ariarne Titmus, ripped Sweeney and Novig for this collaboration.
“I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” Titmus wrote on Instagram. “How do we live in a world where monetizing a woman’s body and sexualizing women’s sport is still a thing?”
Stafford, meanwhile, criticized Sweeney’s new campaign by sharing a video from influencer Daniel Hong.
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“Seeing this whole Sydney Sweeney controversy just confirms what I already knew I have to teach my daughters, sooner than later,” Hong said, via Us Weekly. “My girls are going to grow up in a world where they’re going to learn really quick that attention has value, especially for girls. Appearance can get you attention: likes, comments, followers, money, opportunities. All of that is very real. What I want them to understand is that attention and value are not the same thing.”
Not only did Stafford share that message from Hong, she left this comment on Instagram: “THIS THIS THIS THIS.”
Clearly, Stafford wasn’t a fan of Sweeney’s new commercial.
Not bothered by the criticism.
Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky responded to the company’s critics while at Front Office Sports’ Asset Class conference.
“As a company, we’re hugely supportive of women’s sports,” Fortinsky said, via the New York Post. “We never intended to portray female sports. Sydney’s an actress. We’re a prediction market that is focused on sports, and that was the story she was communicating.”
Sweeney, on the other hand, believed in Novig’s vision.
“I don’t like to just put my face on something,” she said. “I really want to be able to get into the weeds of it with an amazing team. And I got to meet the Novig team. Jacob’s incredible, and I believed in him as a founder.”
