BETTING APP SWEARS ITS NUDE AD IS ABOUT "JUST SPORTS," REACTION IS ANYTHING BUT

Novig is a prediction market app that swears it's different than the rest, on Sept. 9 it launched its first national campaign: Sydney Sweeney naked or barely clothed, holding footballs, a tennis racket, a baseball bat. She also sits on top of a basketball hoop and crouches in front of a hockey net. The selling point is that Novig only does games, no elections, no disasters. "No betting on wars, or deaths and no politics," she says. Focus firmly on sports, everybody. The Instagram cut pulled 37 million views in four days. Then the athletes arrived. Four-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Ariarne Titmus wrote that she can't describe how infuriated she feels watching it. British sprinter Amy Hunt finished fourth in the 200 meters in Budapest, looked into a BBC camera and told Sweeney this is what women in sport look like. Gymnast Gracie Kramer posted a montage of herself training and competing with the same message stamped across it, which turned into a trend of athletes posting their own footage. Sweeney's answer was an Instagram story pairing a nude shot from the ad with ESPN Body Issue photos of Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey and Jason Kelce. That series ran 11 years and ended in 2019, and everyone in it got there by playing sports. She's also not a rented face. Novig confirmed she approached the company about investing, became an equity holder and strategic partner, and CEO Jacob Fortinsky said she helped shape the campaign's creative direction.

Why you should give a shit: Every Olympian posting a training montage is running free ads for a gambling app they hate, and Sweeney owns a piece of it, so she's the only one in this fight getting paid by the engagement.