Over the past few days, Sydney Sweeney’s viral sports betting ad in collaboration with Novig has become a nationwide controversy. And while fans, media, and even highly renowned female track-and-field athletes have scrutinized Sweeney for it, Fox News’ Craig Carton has chosen the road less taken to highlight the hypocrisy surrounding Sweeney’s ad by using Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham as an example.

“What have we known about the WNBA over the last two or three years? What’s the biggest videos that they put out before all the nonsense this year? It’s how the gals are dressed walking to the locker room, and they all try to outdo each other… But interesting how that wasn’t a problem until Sophie Cunningham did it.” Carton said on his YouTube channel.

“And beautiful women in sports isn’t a problem until Sydney Sweeney appears on a billboard in Times Square or on TV. And this is why I find those groups of people that are protesting things like this completely hypocritical,” he added.

Cunningham has been in the headlines for one reason or the other all throughout the summer, be it her viral pointing meme or her stance on transgender athletes, which became an overnight controversy and is likely the same “nonsense” Carton was talking about.

But the Fever star, who is now as popular as her teammate Caitlin Clark, is also one of the only players to have received backlash for her pre-game outfits. Sophie Cunningham often goes for combinations that don’t go unnoticed, from mini shorts and tops to heels and accessories, which make her arrival at the arena another moment worth watching.

Carton provided this example because he believes Sweeney is going through a similar kind of backlash. Anything Sweeney attaches her name to becomes controversial, tracing back to the American Eagle ad controversy last July.

Still, Carton’s stance does not reflect what the consensus has to say about Sweeney’s controversial sports betting ad.

Most notably, a wave of female athletes have taken aim at Sweeney, who is seen with different kinds of sporting equipment like football, baseball, pool, and a soccer ball in the sports betting ad. They believe that the imagery reinforces the objectification of women rather than celebrating their athletic ability and countless achievements in the sport.

Four-time European champion Amy Hunt referenced the advert after she ran a season-best 22.10 seconds to finish fourth in the 200m final at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest.

“Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like,” Hunt said in her post-race interview with BBC Sport.

Four-time Olympic gold medalist Ariarne Titmus also had a strong opinion against Sweeney’s ad campaign.

“I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” Titmus wrote on Instagram. “How do we live in a world where monetizing a woman’s body and sexualizing women’s sport is still a thing?”

Former US gymnast Gracie Kramer also took offense at the advert, posting her thoughts on Instagram and sharing her own experiences as a female athlete.

“I’ve spent my entire life competing in a sport where female athletes have been oversexualized, reduced to our bodies, and forced to fight to be taken seriously for what we can actually do,” Kramer said on her Instagram, while also posting images of female athletes training alongside the caption. “What a woman in sports looks like.”

As of now, Sophie Cunningham has not made any comments on Sweeney’s ad. And if we take a look at their brief encounter last November at the NASCAR Cup Series event in Phoenix, Arizona, that may suggest why she has not. After meeting Sweeney, Cunningham posted a photo on social media with a caption that reflected her self-deprecating humor.

“One of us forgot our t—ts at home,” Sophie wrote in her post on X.

But coming back to Carton, revealing the hypocrisy surrounding Sweeney, the Euphoria star herself fired back at the backlash she was receiving through one of her Instagram stories.

Sydney Sweeney also reflected on the hypocrisy

While the American actress’s promotional ad with Novig did the rounds on social media, Sweeney made another post on her Instagram story on Sunday featuring stills from the ad campaign. She fired back at critics by bringing up previous athletes who’d posed similarly, such as WNBA legend Sue Bird.

In 2018, Sue Bird posed for ESPN’s Body Issue alongside soccer legend Megan Rapinoe. The two became the first couple to pose for the issue. ESPN also released a video of Bird and Rapinoe’s behind-the-scenes.

In addition to Bird, WNBA legend Candace Parker has posed in a similar manner for sports magazines in the past. Sweeney also highlighted other formidable athletes like Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, and Caroline Wozniacki posing similarly for the issue.

While several female athletes have accused Sweeney of “reversing decades of work to be seen as more than just their bodies”, the 29-year-old actress highlighting renowned athletes posing in a similar manner for magazines is exactly the hypocrisy Carton was initially talking about.