Fueling the Fire: How Sydney Sweeney Uses Outrage to Set a New Standard For Advertisement

“Just sports” was all Sydney Sweeney claimed to be selling in a recent advertisement for Novig, a prediction market geared toward “just sports” fans. It’s become clear, however, that in her recent campaign, Sweeney sells far more than sports; she’s selling outrage, using her body to catch attention and provoke conversation.

In the ad, Sweeney appears partially naked, holding or wearing different sports equipment in each shot. These images spread like wildfire across social media and were projected onto gigantic screens in Times Square. They were practically impossible to miss. Unsurprisingly, the internet blew up. Video responses and outrage circulated through the media, all garnering similar responses: disgust and outrage.

Outrage marketing is a specific strategy of advertisement where companies use controversial and shocking imagery to elicit a response from the public and bring attention to a product or brand. In this case, the advertisement isn’t the video or campaign itself, but the reaction it receives. The logic is that the more people talk about the ad and the brand, the more successful the campaign is; it doesn’t matter what people are saying as long as the brand remains relevant. The outcome of this campaign was huge for Novig, whose value quadrupled virtually overnight. The company went from being valued at $500 million to $2 billion.

With the popularity of advertising through social media, it has become increasingly difficult to stand out. Brands are constantly trying to fight for the dwindling attention spans of their audiences. This has led to an endless cycle of trying to one-up competitors, and it is from this that outrage marketing develops. Companies have found that breeding controversy can be successful in cutting through the noise on social media.

But is controversy a sustainable way to build a brand? While in the short term all talk is appealing, if a brand becomes infamous for it, it will hurt its own reputation in the long run. This is not only true for the products Sweeney advertises, but for her own image as well. Primarily, Sweeney is a two-time Emmy nominated actress for her roles in Euphoria and The White Lotus, but these days, what comes to mind is less her talent and more the backlash she has received for her advertisement style.

This idea of repeatedly fueling online disputes has become Sweeney’s main strategy of promoting her image in recent years. In July 2025, Sweeney and American Eagle launched the campaign “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” where Sweeney speaks seductively about her “jeans” as well as her “genes.” The ad’s deliberate wordplay sparked debate online over whether or not the advertisement’s glorification of blonde hair and blue eyes, as well as a eurocentric beauty standard in general, is a cause for concern. This campaign was seen as a dogwhistle. It was designed to be just subtle enough to go undetected by many, but still raised concerns about the promotion of eugenicist values. Sweeney is nowhere near new to outrage marketing.

What sets this ad aside from the other campaigns Sweeney has worked on is the response from professional female athletes. The athletic sector has undervalued women and commodified their bodies for decades. Many athletes responded to the ad on social media by saying how the oversexualization of Sweeney in the ad continued to promote sexist ideas that they have been continuously pushing back against. Gracie Kramer, for instance, a former UCLA gymnast, joined the response by posting on Instagram videos of herself competing on a professional level with the caption “this is what a woman in sports looks like.” Many female athletes, including Kramer, see the entire campaign as a major setback in their struggle to be respected. 

The objectification of the female body and its use in commercial endeavors has only made it harder for these athletes to receive the respect they deserve and to be taken seriously. Sweeney, by starring in this campaign, has reinforced an overdone, harmful idea of what a woman in sports looks like, an image that veers away from the reality of female athleticism and backwards toward an age-old stereotype that does nothing but hurt those struggling for recognition in a male-dominated field.

While Sweeney has been prolific in recent years when it comes to scandalous ad campaigns, she is not the only one using outrage marketing. In an ad for Converse released earlier this year, disturbing images gained a strong inline reaction. In the ad, a pair of Converse sneakers are hanging in front of a white triangle, while other shoes are displayed in a circle around them. Many online have agreed that this ad uses overt symbolism from the Ku Klux Klan. While Sweeney’s jeans ad was a dogwhistle, this feels more like a blaring alarm. The hanging shoes paired with what looks like a white pointed hood make this claim hard to refute.

The use of outrage marketing is nowhere near slowing down, and Sweeney is adding fuel to this already growing fire. Companies are testing the limits of what they can show. The problem is, this tactic does work. Controversial ads are becoming the new standard for “successful” marketing campaigns. How shocking and upsetting are we going to let advertisements become before we stop buying into them?