Times Square has hosted plenty of billboard battles, but rarely one fought over a single word. For the past month, one of its screens has carried the Sydney Sweeney Novig ad, with the actor posing in little more than sports equipment beside the line “Just Sports.” This week, a second brand moved onto the same stretch of screens with a reply: never just sports.
Powerade, the Coca-Cola-owned sports drink, launched digital billboards and social posts that turn Novig’s slogan into a rebuke. Its argument: women’s sports have never been “just” anything. It is the sharpest corporate response yet to a campaign that has split the sports world for five weeks. It is also a case study in how attention, respect and money now collide in sports marketing.
How the Sydney Sweeney Novig Ad Started the Fight
Novig is a sports prediction market, a platform where users trade on the outcome of games. It competes with larger rivals such as Kalshi and Polymarket, and its main selling point is focus. Unlike some competitors, it lists no markets on wars, deaths or elections. In short, it is “just sports.”
To sell that idea, the company launched its first national campaign on 9 September. In the spot, Sweeney tries on football gear, hockey pads and a basketball hoop while wearing almost nothing else. The campaign ran across digital, social, video and outdoor placements, including Times Square. It was planned to run through the football season.
Notably, Sweeney is not a typical paid spokesperson. According to Novig co-founder and chief executive Jacob Fortinsky, the actor approached the company about an equity partnership. She is now a shareholder.
Why Female Athletes Pushed Back
The reaction from women in sport was fast and pointed. Australian Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus called the ad “a kick in the face” to women who have dedicated their lives to their craft. British Olympic cycling champion Sophie Capewell also criticised it. Meanwhile, college athletes flooded social media with clips of themselves training and competing to show what a woman in sports actually looks like.
Their core objection was simple. No actual athletes appear in the ad, which critics said undercut years of work to win recognition for women’s teams. Women’s leagues and college programmes are drawing more attention than ever. So a campaign that put a Hollywood actor’s body at the centre of the word “sports” landed badly with the people who play them.
For his part, Fortinsky has defended the work. He has said the company never intended to portray women’s sports and that women’s sports are a large part of its platform. He was also candid about the strategy, saying the reaction “forces us into the national discourse.”
The Numbers Novig Is Pointing To
Whatever critics think of the creative, Novig says it worked commercially. In the 20 days around the launch, trading volume rose almost 94% and first-time depositors jumped more than 218%. Those are the company’s own figures, shared with CNBC. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Novig is raising money at a $2 billion valuation.
For a smaller company fighting much bigger rivals for attention, that is the trade it made on purpose. Controversy bought visibility, and visibility bought customers.
Round Two: A Sequel and a Reply
Rather than retreat, however, Novig doubled down. On Sunday, 11 October, Sweeney posted a second “Just Sports” spot on Instagram, shot in the same style. This time the script contrasts Novig with platforms that let people trade on wars and world events, and closes on the same two-word promise.
Powerade, in turn, answered the next day. On Monday, 12 October, it unveiled its own Times Square placement and a matching Instagram post. Ogilvy made the creative through WPP Open X, with WPP Production. It shows real women athletes in action under the line “Never Just Sports” and the hashtag #PowerYourLegacy. Notably, it never names Sweeney or Novig. It does not need to.
Why Powerade’s Response Lands
Several things make this more than a cheap shot at a rival’s ad.
- It borrows the attention. By flipping a slogan everyone already recognises, Powerade joins a national conversation without paying to start one.
- It has a track record behind it. The brand has built campaigns around Flau’Jae Johnson, Sha’Carri Richardson, Katie Grimes, Alex Morgan and Tatjana Smith, so the message reads as consistent rather than opportunistic.
- It stays positive. The ad celebrates athletes instead of attacking anyone. As a result, Powerade sits on the side of the people who were upset, not in a fight with a celebrity.
- It uses the same arena. Placing the reply in Times Square, close to where the original ran, makes the contrast impossible to miss.
What the Sydney Sweeney Novig Ad Says About Sports Marketing
Strip away the celebrity and this is a story about two different bets on what sports fans value.
On one side, Novig is betting that attention converts, whatever its source. Its early numbers suggest that, at least in the short term, it does. Prediction markets are a crowded and fast-growing category, and a startup that cannot outspend Kalshi or Polymarket can still out-provoke them.
On the other side, Powerade is betting on something slower: that respect for athletes builds loyalty that lasts longer than a viral moment. That approach fits a market where women’s sports viewership, sponsorship and salaries keep growing. Fans also notice which brands showed up before the spotlight arrived.
Both strategies can work at once, for different audiences. However, the episode shows that brands no longer get to treat women’s sports as background scenery. Athletes now have large audiences of their own, and they will answer back in public.
What to Watch Next
First, watch whether Novig keeps the campaign running through the rest of the football season, as planned, or adjusts the creative. Second, watch whether other brands with women’s sports partnerships follow Powerade’s lead. Third, watch Novig’s fundraising. If it closes at the reported valuation, other challenger brands will draw their own conclusions about the value of controversy.
The Bottom Line
The Sydney Sweeney Novig ad did exactly what it was designed to do: it got people talking, and it brought in customers. Powerade’s reply did something different. It took the same word and handed it back to the athletes. In a month when one brand proved that provocation sells, another reminded everyone why the games are worth watching in the first place.