Trends from fashion week that you can wear tomorrow
Style-ish
The episode explores recent controversies within the fashion and beauty industries, beginning with the backlash against Sydney Sweeney's sug
Key takeaways
- Sydney Sweeney holds an undisclosed equity stake in the prediction market company Novig.
- The brand Ultraviolet faced intense scrutiny after its SPF 50 product was found to have an actual SPF of only 4.
Main topics
- Sydney Sweeney Novig ad controversy
- Sunscreen testing scandal (SPF Gate)
Notable quotes
This is sending us backwards.
Conclusion
The episode provides a comprehensive look at how marketing choices and
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:04) Shameless Media. This episode of Stylish is brought to you by Michael Hill. Explore Michael Hill's new range of coloured gemstones online and in-store. Speaker 2 (0:14) Hello and welcome to Stylish, the podcast for Speaker 1 (0:17) all things fashion, lifestyle, brand and beauty. I'm Rhiannon Joyce and today there's just the two of us. I don't take it if we try, just the two of us. Nyma is sadly sick today and a few of the girls are obviously off on leave. We've got Annika in New York, Jo is working, so it's Madison Sullivan Thorpe and Rhiannon Joyce today for your Wednesday episode, fam. I want to get straight into it. Oh, we're doing it. I know what we're talking about. The Sydney Sweeney ad for Novig. I think it's been a while since I've watched something on social media and gone, are we serious? Like, are we Speaker 2 (0:57) seriously Speaker 1 (0:58) doing this? Speaker 2 (0:59) I think visceral reaction was felt by probably majority of women. I don't think I'm speaking out of tone to say that. I think a lot of women were like, ooh. Speaker 1 (1:08) Yeah, it's one of those things. If you haven't seen it, so Sydney Sweeney has recently fronted an advertising campaign for an odds company. It's not an odds company. It's a prediction market. But it's in the gambling sphere. The company's called Novig, and in that ad. Sydney Sweeney is naked for the entirety of it and in various different like poses with different balls, literally, as in like footballs, basketballs Speaker 2 (1:32) and Speaker 1 (1:32) stuff Speaker 2 (1:32) covering Speaker 1 (1:32) her boobs. Speaker 2 (1:34) Well, Speaker 1 (1:34) I was like, Speaker 2 (1:35) if you hadn't seen it, you know, you might not Speaker 1 (1:37) know. So like basketballs, footballs, she's on a pool table. It's very suggestive. It's very sex sells mindset. Now the internet's response to this has been pretty thick and fast. It's got all the headlines, which to be honest, I think that's what the company wanted. The whole concept of Speaker 2 (1:52) this ad though, is that they just do sports. So a lot of these kind of predictor markets or gambling agencies will offer, you know, betting on royalty or politics or, you know, global events. And this is just sports. And so the whole premise is it's just sports. But as you said, she's there naked with all of these sporting balls. Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:10) And it was the most like obvious through line. The whole concept of it being just sports and then her being naked and the simplifying it and trying to cut through the clutter. It was so obvious, but it was also so reductive. So reductive. Look, the response videos have come in thick and fast. I don't think anyone's shocked by the response. So a lot of people have been making videos, particularly female athletes, saying this is sending us backwards. This is so reductive. This is very disappointing to see Sydney Sweeney front a campaign that is so obviously about the male gaze. It's not about lifting women in sport who will form a huge portion of this sports market. Speaker 2 (2:42) I think what's so disappointing is probably for the last, I mean, since the dawn of time, women have been fighting for airtime for female sports. And I think we have seen an industry that is largely underrepresented, underfunded, unattended to in the way that it deserves because the effort, energy and output is the same as men, if not more, by the simple fact that they're trying so hard to get the exposure. This is just, this just feels like the biggest step back. I felt my heart sink for any sport woman. Speaker 1 (3:11) Yeah, it's also the added layer of it being Sydney Sweeney. And now that might sound really personal, but I think Sydney Sweeney has made a habit out of really leveraging her body in a way to sell. And Mads, on a Fortnightly Friday episode ages ago, we talked about the whole concept of is sex in advertising back pretty much? Yeah. And we talked a lot about Carl's Jr. burgers and how they're very much still prevalent in the Super Bowl. And there's always, you know, Alex Earle's fronting that came and this has been something that we've seen bubbling away. This is like the extreme version of it. I also want to talk about the fact that Sydney Sweeney actually. has equity within this company as Speaker 2 (3:42) well? She does, yeah. So there's a great Instagram account if anyone is ever interested in learning about, you know, which influencers or brands have taken equity, sold, series raised, all of those sorts of things. And so it's called Traded VC and they reported that Sydney Sweeney has actually signed on as an equity partner. It's undisclosed what equity share she has and how much she paid for her equity percentage. But my assumption would be that it's probably a fee that she has replaced with the use and likeness of her image. It Speaker 1 (4:10) muddies it for me because that also says if you're willing to put equity into a brand like this that exists in the gambling sphere, that says a lot about your character in terms of like how you want to show up in the world. And I think from what we know of gambling and how much it destroys so many people's lives, I think that's a serious choice. I Speaker 2 (4:26) think it's a really serious choice. And also I think the use of her being... Virtually naked. No, she is. She is naked. I mean, we don't see her full frame. So, Speaker 1 (4:35) you know, we'll put two basketballs there. Yeah, two basketballs there, one football down below. I Speaker 2 (4:39) think another dangerous layer of this is that that appeals to largely young men. Speaker 1 (4:44) And Speaker 2 (4:45) I think that the gambling legal age, to my understanding, is 21 in the States. So this is also a really dangerous line to be running. The thing that's interesting as Speaker 1 (4:55) well, Novig is a relatively new company, so they haven't been around for a while. From my perspective, from a marketer's perspective, they've achieved their goal. Like they're probably sitting in the boardroom pretty happy with themselves right now because they've got so many headlines. They've got people talking about the company. They did exactly what they wanted to do, which was cut through the clutter or cut through. But they've done it in a way where I think creativity has been replaced by. like headlines. I think it's the age old saying of no publicity Speaker 2 (5:19) is bad publicity. And I think that they've been really comfortable with outrage being the response. I mean, really disappointingly, I sat in the comment section for probably a good 30 minutes and let me tell you, it's not somewhere I want to hang out again. It was an even split of females being like, really Novik, this is so disappointing. And a whole bunch of men basically going, I love sports. Oh yeah, I love sports too. Speaker 1 (5:40) And I love Speaker 2 (5:40) Sydney Speaker 1 (5:40) Sweeney. But this is the thing, the outrage is coming from our audience, not their own. So for them, they're looking at this and going like, Well, it was a huge success. Yeah. Disappointing to say the least, but I Speaker 2 (5:49) do have to say I love the virality of the rebuttal videos I've seen from the female sports stars. So well done, girls. Hate that you had to make the video, but I'm glad it's getting the traction it deserves. Today, we've got a lot on our agenda, Rhi. We are revisiting something we've spoken quite a lot about on this podcast. They call it Sunscreen Gate. SPF Gate. SPF Gate. So we are covering kind of where we are now and ultraviolet, which sort of was the face of all of that scandal. We're also going to be talking trends we're seeing emerge from New York Fashion Week. That's going to be right after a word from today's sponsor. Speaker 1 (6:21) Consider this your PSA. It's time to add a little more color to your life. Forget neutral minimalism. Color is everywhere right now, from our clothes to our interiors. So why should our jewelry be any different? In fact, jewelry is probably the perfect place to start. Michael Hill's new collection of colored gemstone jewelry is designed to be worn, not saved for a special occasion. Think bold signet rings, colorful gemstone pendants, or earrings that inspire you to get a little more creative with your wardrobe. and add just the right amount of color to your everyday. If you're still a little color averse, it's an easy way to dip your toes in. A gemstone ring added to your everyday stack or a colorful pendant with a simple outfit is a low effort way to experiment. Right now, Michael Hill is taking up to 30 % off almost all colored gemstone jewelry. Plus, stylish listeners can use code style-ish to save an extra 10 % online. Explore Michael Hill's new range of colour online or in store and thank you so much to Michael Hill for making this episode of Stylish possible. Speaker 1 (7:23) Okay, our first story, Deceptive, Ultraviolet Sue's Wild Child Laboratories for SBF Failure. So this is the latest installment of what's taken place in the sunscreen gate. I'm not calling it that. That's very much what it's been labeled in the media. The saga has continued to grow and I'll give you a really quick summary of the scandal and what's happened because it has been over 12 months since we last touched on this story. So Wild Child, the manufacturer of the base formula used by 20 sunscreens that actually came from 16 brands, were pulled from sale for failing to meet the sun protection. claims. They're actually being sued for misleading and deceptive conduct by Ultraviolet. As per the Sydney Morning Herald,