Chloe Fineman Parodies Sydney Sweeney's Novig Ad With 1 Prosthetic Chest Plate

Q: Will Sydney Sweeney strike back at the comedian who mercilessly mocked her highly criticized and sexualized sports commercial?

There is no sign Sydney Sweeney plans to publicly “strike back” at Chloe Fineman. So far, the evidence points the other way. Fineman’s Instagram parody mocked Sweeney’s widely criticized Novig ad by exaggerating its sexualized tone, and the clip drew strong support online. But as of the reporting cited, Sweeney had not commented on Fineman’s post, and there was no response from her representatives. What Sweeney has done instead is defend the Novig campaign itself. She said the ad was meant to be playful and to “put the focus entirely on sports,” and Novig echoed that framing. She also appeared to answer the broader backlash by posting images of nude athletes from magazine covers, suggesting she was responding to criticism of the ad’s sexualization rather than directly addressing Fineman’s satire. That matters because Fineman’s video landed in a larger controversy already engulfing the campaign. Female athletes, including Olympians, criticized the Novig spot as reductive and harmful to women’s sports. In that context, going after a comedian for parodying an already polarizing ad could risk prolonging the backlash. Absent a statement, any prediction beyond that is speculation. Based on the available facts, Sweeney appears more likely to stay focused on defending the campaign or ignore the parody than to launch a public counterattack.

Q: How does bouncing tennis balls off a prosthetic chest expose the uncomfortable truth about marketing women's sports?

It exposes that much of the marketing around women and sports still sells attention through sexualized imagery rather than athletic achievement. Chloe Fineman’s parody works because it strips the Novig ad down to what critics say was its real pitch: not competition, skill or women’s participation in sport, but a body used as bait. By literally bouncing tennis balls, footballs and basketballs off a prosthetic chest while saying the ad is “actually about t**s,” she makes the subtext impossible to miss. The joke is blunt, but that is why it landed: viewers recognized the discomfort they felt watching the original campaign. That reaction mirrors the criticism from female athletes such as Gracie Kramer and Bree Masters, who argued the ad reflected the “male gaze” and reduced women in sports to physical display. Their point was not that bodies are inherently inappropriate, but that women athletes have long had to fight to be valued for performance, discipline and results rather than appearance. When a sports brand uses a celebrity’s sexuality to market a betting platform, it can reinforce the idea that women are more commercially useful as spectacle than as competitors. Fineman’s chest-plate gag turns that imbalance into visual evidence. If the easiest way to parody a sports ad is to exaggerate its fixation on breasts, the satire suggests the original already blurred the line between promoting sports and objectifying women. That is the uncomfortable truth her bit exposes.

3 articles · Updated · TV Insider · Sep 13

Chloe Fineman posted an Instagram parody of Sydney Sweeney’s Novig ad, using a prosthetic chest plate she said she took after leaving her SNL dressing room.
In the video, Fineman exaggerates the original spot’s mix of nudity and sports, joking that the ad is “actually about t**s” while bouncing tennis, football and basketball props off her chest.
Instagram commenters praised the spoof as sharply accurate, with several calling the original commercial cringey and Fineman’s sendup one of her best bits.
The parody lands just after Fineman said she exited Saturday Night Live following 7 seasons; she had previously discussed the custom “Sydney Sweeneys” chest plate on The View in 2025.