Controversy Strikes
Sydney Sweeney, an American actress and producer, has hit her third strike in her advertisement career—a career that began only two years ago. Most famous for her role as Cassie in hit TV show Euphoria, Sweeney published her first ad in October of 2024 for soap brand Dr. Squatch’s, in which she deliberately called for “dirty little boys” to buy a new soap enhanced with some of her own bath water. Barely a year later, Sweeney worked with American Eagle to publish “Sydney Sweeney has Great Jeans”, in which the ads play on words by interchanging “jeans” and “genes”, enticing many to feel there were racial motivations wherein Sweeney was claiming to have superior genes. Now, Sweeney strikes again—and this might be her worst yet.
Unskippable
Sydney Sweeney has no children or significantly younger siblings herself; perhaps that’s why she is able to ignore much of the effects of her own ad. Youtube Kids, a separate app owned and managed by Youtube, is supposed to be a safe platform for children under the age of thirteen to watch approved videos and verified content. On this app, parents have the option to monitor their child’s settings in order to ensure their protection from explicit content. These settings include a stricter filter, search disabling, screen time management, and more. Thus, it’s a useful tool for parents to keep their children from adult content that isn’t blocked on YouTube. However, if a family uses the same account for their YouTube and their child’s YouTube Kid’s, it is possible for mainstream YouTube ads to appear on YouTube Kids.
While there is no verified evidence that Sydney Sweeney’s “Just Sports” ad has aired on YouTube Kid’s, parents have claimed through multiple public outlets that they encountered the ad on their child’s account with it being unskippable despite the companies advertising guidelines specifically banning gambling, sports betting, or sexual content. YouTube Kids isn’t the only kid-safe streaming service with the ad, however. One woman writes “I got the ad on Disney Plus, a kids app,” while another states that the ad appeared on her eight year old sister’s TV. Furthermore, teachers who use YouTube in their classrooms as a learning tool now have to be wary of ads out of their control, with one anonymous student claiming “the ad played in my school cafeteria.” As children become exposed to sexual content and nudity within their everyday lives, they become desensitized. This can lead to the development of sexualized and unhealthy views of women and their bodies. In time, “Just Sports” and ads like it will accustom children to unhealthy habits such as gambling and sports betting, hence parental and familial outrage.
The Effect
Overall, Sydney Sweeney’s advertisement career has sparked major controversy and “Just Sports” is no exception. As her ads are shot to attract the male gaze, many women criticize her for objectifying her body in order to gain fame and status with little to no regard of the effect her ads have on women’s progress throughout not just the sports community, but all areas of life. The public outcry against Sweeney is clearly seen on her social media pages, specifically her Instagram, where the full ad is posted. Comments as far as you can scroll sarcastically mention that she does have the ability to wear clothes, and compare her to the likeness of her troublesome character Cassie of Euphoria. Many online have even taken it upon themselves to re-shoot the ad from a perspective that they believe truly represents women’s engagement in the sports community. However, despite many women criticizing Sweeney for sexualizing sports, studies show that Novig engagement has only gone up. It seems that by creating engaging, eye-catching ads, Sydney Sweeney brings attention through publicity for her benefit, no matter how much it hurts fellow women, parents, and future generations.