Our Take: Sydney Sweeney's ad, we got hacked & the manosphere vs Chris

Chris Spyrou (0:07)

Hello, hello, hello, Chris Spyrou with you. Sitting opposite me is Sacha Barbour Gatt. I wanted to get this out of the way early.

Isobel (0:12)

Thank you.

Chris Spyrou (0:13)

Because usually you're kind of like, come on, we haven't.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (0:14)

I just feel antsy until you've actually said who we are and what we do. We're the hosts of The Briefing, and welcome to our Saturday show, our take.

Chris Spyrou (0:23)

Yes, this is where we, oh my gosh, this is where, well, usually I say this way, kick off our shoes, loosen our ties, blah, blah, blah. I've never worn a button up shirt to this. The only time I've worn a button up shirt is when it's like an over shirt, because the studio gets really cold. But we did, we wanted to start saying this is the show where we turn the lights off, but then did you were like you can't do that because we want to start cutting up clips for socials. But the cameras this week are not working. So the lights are off, baby. And we are here for our take.

This is our looser, chattier version of The Briefing, where we look back at the week that was and what we and you listening made all of it. We debrief a story that we couldn't stop talking about. Then we open up our inbox where we go through some of our DMs, our comments. Then we of course do our weekend quiz, which will eventually feature someone listening to this pod. But for now, we have people from around the business taking part to see if they've been paying attention to our headlines and our show.

And then of course we cap it off with a staple of The Weekend Briefing, The Weekend List, where we recommend what to watch, see, do, eat and listen to. I said that at record speed.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (1:24)

You're getting too good.

Chris Spyrou (1:26)

Too good. But first, let's get into this. Thinking of sports? Prove it. Sports. Sports. Sports. Sports.

You can't trade this. I just look at here. Okay, Sydney Sweeney in hot water.

Again. A bit of context, please.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (1:42)

Okay, so that was an ad for a sports prediction company. And it's not actually legal in Australia, but it's kind of gambling, you bet on like the outcome of sporting events. I know that sounds similar to what gambling on sports already is, but it uses a bunch of other different things and data and analytics and all this stuff.

Chris Spyrou (2:04)

Yeah. So normal gambling is where you bet against the house, whereas this prediction markets are kind of like a stock market where real people are trading shares with other people based on what they're predicting. If that, have I got that right? I'm getting the two thumbs up from, from producer Tessa at the desk. Yeah.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (2:19)

I've tried to have a Google of this for a very long time because I've been trying to figure it out, but that's basically it. You're trading it with other people rather than like a bookie or a casino being the one that has the money or the cards.

Chris Spyrou (2:30)

And the reason that these are popping off is because they circumvent a lot of the gambling rules in American states where gambling and sports betting is illegal, but you can still do this.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (2:40)

So, you know, all of that aside, well, actually that does kind of play into the controversy, but the biggest issue with this ad is that it, as you heard, she's referencing sports, sports, sports, sports, and she's posing either partially or completely nude with sporting equipment covering her assets.

Chris Spyrou (3:02)

Oh, good play on words there.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (3:04)

Assets.

So covering her chest, covering her lower half when she is fully naked, and she's posing quite suggestively quite a few times. Now, look, you know, I saw this ad and I went, uh-huh, typical.

Chris Spyrou (3:17)

Sydney Sweeney.

Well, no. Oh, right. Okay.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (3:20)

Yeah.

Chris Spyrou (3:20)

Go, go.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (3:21)

Typical male-centric marketing strategy of sex sells, sexy girl plus sport equal me watch. Um, playing into the very base instincts of who they're trying to target.

But the main backlash has been from female athletes who say it denigrates them. It reduces what they do to, you know, their bodies and how they look. And they have worked really hard to not have that be the case. Um, and you know, Sydney Sweeney wasn't pretending to be a female athlete. She was just posing with sporting equipment. But the reaction has been very swift from a bunch of female athletes.