The drama surrounding Sydney Sweeney's advert gets an epic response: “The world will keep turning”

Charley Hull has stepped into the debate surrounding Sydney Sweeney ’s controversial Novig campaign with a characteristically blunt message being, people are overthinking it.

The golf star weighed in after a wave of criticism from female athletes who argued that Sweeney’s sports-themed advert sexualized women and distracted from the athleticism of women’s sport. Hull sees it differently.

“My opinion on the @sydney_sweeney advert? People are genuinely getting pissed off because an actress/model is… modelling in an advert. ???? That is quite literally her job,” Hull wrote on Instagram.

“Not everything needs a 45-minute psychological breakdown and a public inquiry,” Hull added. “Sometimes a pretty woman in an advert is just a pretty woman in an advert. The world will keep spinning, I promise. ????"

Issue goes beyond Sweeney herself

The Novig campaign features Sweeney posing with sports equipment while promoting the company’s “Just Sports” branding.

That imagery drew criticism from a number of prominent female athletes, who said the campaign blurred the line between promoting sport and sexualizing women connected to it.

World champion boxer Skye Nicolson was among those to respond, writing: “Respectfully Sydney Sweeney, This is sport… Stop sexualizing women in sport.”

Other athletes, including Ariarne Titmus, Amy Hunt, Sophie Capewell, Lisa Neumann, Ellie Boatman and Tilly Kearns , also joined the broader backlash.

One athlete wrote: “How do we live in a world where monetizing a woman’s body and sexualizing women’s sport is still a thing?”

Another argued that young girls need to understand that “attention and value are not the same thing,” warning that appearance can bring likes, money and opportunities without necessarily reflecting achievement.

Novig pushes back on criticism

Novig co-founder Jacob Fortinsky has defended the campaign and said the company was not trying to depict women’s sport.

“As a company, we’re hugely supportive of women’s sports,” Fortinsky said. “We never intended to portray female sports.”

He also stressed that Sweeney was appearing in her role as an actress.

“Sydney’s an actress,” Fortinsky added. “We’re a prediction market that is focused on sports, and that was the story she was communicating.”

Sweeney , who is also a strategic partner and equity holder in Novig, has not directly addressed the criticism.

She appeared to respond indirectly by sharing images from ESPN’s former “Body Issue” shoots featuring professional athletes.

Hull ’s intervention adds another prominent voice to the dispute, but from the opposite side.

Critics see the campaign as part of a broader pattern in which women’s sport is reduced to image and sexuality.

Hull ’s view is that an actress posed for an advert, and not every campaign needs to become a referendum on women’s sport.