TLDR
Kyle Sandilands has posted an AI body-swap parody of Sydney Sweeney's Novig 'Just Sports' ad, the latest in a run of rebuttals, parodies and op-eds that keep putting the original back in front of audiences. Sweeney holds equity in Novig, and Powerade has already answered the ad with its own campaign.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
What Sandilands posted
Kyle Sandilands has posted a short clip to his Instagram spoofing Sydney Sweeney's Novig advertisement, using AI to swap his body into the role Sweeney filmed; he appears in his underwear.[1] Uncomfortable by design, it was also another full airing of the original campaign to a fresh audience.
Sweeney's original, released in September, showed her posing nude with sporting equipment protecting her modesty.[2] It carried the tagline "Novig is just sports." Every rebuttal, parody and counter-campaign since has repeated that tagline and that visual to whoever was watching.
Four events, one original spend
Sweeney is a strategic partner and equity holder in Novig, the sports-only prediction market app, not a talent hired for a shoot.[2] She then posted a follow-up video on Instagram, topless in white Novig-branded underwear, joking about bettors tracking the colour of her underwear and mocking the backlash.[2]
Powerade answered with "Never Just Sports", created by Ogilvy: a Times Square billboard and ads featuring real women athletes.[4] It was a rebuttal, and it also gave the original another round of coverage.
Natasha Lee, writing in Mediaweek, put the commercial logic plainly: "That is not smashing the patriarchy. It is closer to sending it an invoice." The Sandilands parody is the latest round, and Novig did not make it.
According to the Wall Street Journal, as reported by the Daily Beast, the ads helped lift Novig's valuation from $500 million to $2 billion by the end of September.[2] That fourfold increase arrived before the Sweeney follow-up Reel, before Powerade's response, and before Sandilands posted anything.
The Australian read
Cassie Staples, Cronulla Sharks winger, argued in B&T that the ad reflects how brands routinely represent women in sport, a domestic criticism that landed the campaign on Australian marketing desks regardless of whether any local agency was involved.[1] Sandilands' parody accelerated that conversation here.
The Sandilands post raises two questions Australian agencies have not yet had to answer at scale. Provocation-as-strategy is the first: every rebuttal keeps the Novig ad in circulation. Likeness rights is the second. When a generative AI tool places a real person's body into an existing piece of commercial content and publishes the result publicly, contracts and consent become the first line of defence.
Agencies running influencer and talent contracts will need to check whether existing exclusivity and image-rights clauses cover generative recreations, given the Sandilands post confirms the tools to produce them are already in consumer hands.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
- Kyle Sandilands spoofs Sydney Sweeney's Just Sports ad, B&T
- Sydney Sweeney posts topless video to mock Novig ad backlash, The Daily Beast
- Sydney Sweeney isn't taking women backwards, she's cashing in, Mediaweek
- Powerade hits back at Novig's Sydney Sweeney ad, B&T
- Novig 'Just Sports' campaign video, YouTube
- Kyle Sandilands AI body-swap Reel, Instagram
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the Novig 'Just Sports' campaign?
What did Kyle Sandilands post?
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What is the 'Never Just Sports' campaign?
What does the Sandilands parody mean for Australian agencies?
Xaviery Malinao writes for Prompt the Market on how brands and agencies are adapting to answer engines, drawing on Bushnote's work with clients across search, AI search and content.
Important
This article discusses the valuation and financial performance of Novig, a private company. This is general information only and does not constitute financial advice. Before making any investment decisions, consult a licensed financial adviser.
