Sports brands are facing renewed scrutiny over how they market to women, with recent campaigns from Callaway Golf and Sydney Sweeney sparking debate over whether the industry is moving forwards – or falling back.

Sports have long been perceived as something just for men- especially sports such as rugby, cricket, football and F1.  And women who are interested in them have long been asked to “prove it”.

And Sydney Sweeney asked fans to do just that. Maybe the script wouldn’t have prompted as much backlash as it did if she hadn’t been posing for it mostly nude.

But for female sports fans this was a step too far and they took to social media in droves to protest the campaign, which launched last week. Audiences accused Sweeney of sexualising sport and setting women’s sports back. Other major criticisms of the campaign steamed from the fact it was “inappropriate” and “vulgar”.

Its not just fans that were speaking out. Amy Hunt [pictured], British sprinter and four-time European champion, in a post race interview with the BBC said: “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like.”

She wasn’t the only one to voice her concerns. American gymnast Gracie Kramer started the trend becoming the first sportswomen to speak out against it by posting a video to her Instagram with text: “I don’t know what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what women in sport look like.”

The caption to the post stated: “Because it really is that deep.”

No stranger to controversy, having received backlash last year due to her American Eagle advert, Sweeney appeared to respond to the backlash, posting series of images of other sports stars that appeared nude for a campaign including tennis player Serena Williams and former basketball player Sue Bird.

She also spotlighted that there were male athletes that had done the same- American football player’s Jason Kelce and Myles Garrett among them.

That hasn’t stopped the public from speaking out.

But what was the commercial objective behind the campaign? It is difficult to believe the company was unaware of the reaction it would generate. The controversy appears to have been part of the strategy, using shock value to drive awareness and put Novig on the radar – a brand that, until this campaign, had relatively little recognition among the wider public.

So in that regard, the campaign worked as intended. But for all the women who have fought so hard to be accepted in sports circles it is nothing more than a slap in the face.

The Callaway Golf ad might be a different case, it showcased a well known brand (at least in golfing circles). It featured a co-founder Garett Clark pushing content creator and former collegiate golfer Alexis Miestowski to the ground over a golf club. It was said to be a parody of a 2026 horror movie- Obsession.

It was criticised heavily for promoting domestic violence and caused significant backlash online.

There is an old saying that two is a coincidence and three is a pattern. In this case, however, these campaigns can be viewed as part of a wider cultural shift in how women are represented.

From the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US to the rise of the so-called ‘red pill’ movement online, alongside the restrictions placed on women in countries including Afghanistan and Iran, the past decade has seen significant challenges to women’s rights and representation.

Advertising does not exist in isolation from these wider cultural currents. If attitudes towards women are shifting, marketing can reflect those changes too – including through campaigns that position women primarily through the lens of male attention and sexualisation. For brands and retailers, the question is where that leaves the progress made in how female consumers are represented and engaged.

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