Sexualized Marketing for Novig Obscured Online Gambling’s Risks to Young Men
Psychology researcher William Costello argues that the backlash to Sydney Sweeney’s Novig advertisement has focused on the wrong issue: not a sports-betting product marketed to young men through sexualized imagery, but whether the commercial demeans women’s sport. Costello and host Chris Williamson contend that Sweeney draws particular hostility because her public persona appears oriented toward male attention without the feminist or female-solidarity cues that make similar sexualization acceptable. Their broader claim is that the dispute reflects coalitional and mating competition as much as objections to the ad itself.
Chris Williamson·Sep 19, 2026·14 min read
