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Kelly Stafford, the wife of LA Rams quarterback Matthew, has weighed in on the ongoing Sydney Sweeney debate after the actress posed naked for a sports betting commercial.
Debate has been raging over the past few days, after Sweeney was seen covering her nude body with strategically-placed sports equipment, for an ad promoting betting company Novig.
Sweeney herself has lost more than 200,000 Instagram followers amid the backlash, while various female sports stars have slammed the campaign for wrongly portraying what a woman in sports looks like.
Now Stafford, the ever-outspoken NFL WAG, has had her say on social media, reposting a video from influencer Daniel Hong, alongside the message: 'THIS THIS THIS THIS.'
Stafford's ringing endorsement is the latest criticism of the Sweeney ad, and reinforces the message that young girls should not believe that 'attention and value' are the same thing.
In the clip that Stafford shared, father-of-two Hong said: 'Appearance can get you attention: likes, comments, followers, money, opportunities. All of that is very real. What I want them to understand is that attention and value are not the same thing.'
Sydney Sweeney has lost more than 200,000 Instagram followers after she was accused of sexualising women's sport by posing naked in a betting advert
Kelly Stafford, mother of four and wife of Rams QB Matthew, has now weighed in on the subject
Stafford is a mother of four young girls and regularly discusses the complexities of parenting on her podcast, The Morning After.
Her comments on the Novig ad are just the latest blow for the company and its embattled CEO Jacob Fortinsky, who came out in support of the campaign on Tuesday.
'As a company, we're hugely supportive of women's sports,' he began in an interview with Front Office Sports. 'We never intended to portray female sports.
'Sydney's an actress. We're a prediction market that is focused on sports, and that was the story she was communicating.'
British sprinter Amy Hunt is among the top female sports stars to speak out against the advert, first using her live postrace TV interview to rip into the promo.
In one of the images, Sweeney sits on top of a basketball hoop completely naked
Despite the backlash, the ad has appeared on billboards in New York's Times Square this week
She then appeared on Good Morning Britain, where she doubled down on her views and highlighted the potential dangers of Sweeney's actions.
'When we're trying to provide role models for young people and young women in sport, we really want to show that it's about what your body can do, not so much what it looks like,' she said.
'When we see the stats that 64 per cent of young girls drop out of exercise and sport before they reach the age of 16, we don't need to place any kind of barrier whatsoever in their way in terms of providing the opportunity and the empowerment for them to still exercise, whatever that looks like, whether it's professional or just going to do a park run with your friends.
'So it's about empowering young girls and young women and young people to show that you really can just get out there and you don't have to worry what you look like. You don't have to worry about what you're wearing.'
