Sweeney is seemingly increasingly building a strategic business, and controversy appears to be part of that.

You don’t even have to be chronically online to have at least heard about her new sports betting ad. A naked Sweeney using two American footballs over her breasts as she mumbles, "Think you know sports? Prove it", with another shot of her sitting casually perched in a basketball net.

Now, here’s the thing. It’s no longer about the nudity itself; we see so much of it in pop culture that it barely feels shocking anymore. And it’s not to say women can’t express seductiveness the way they want, each to their own.

It’s how it’s being expressed, what it’s rooted in, and the context around it. 

"This is what women in sport look like."Amy Hunt celebrates sportswomen after her race at the Ultimate Championship.It comes amid criticism of Sydney Sweeney for her appearance in an advert for a sports betting company. pic.twitter.com/e3cK6Gcm8Y

Damn Gracie whack her again for me pic.twitter.com/NFET19El1i

I’ll admit, I was among those who rolled my eyes and grimaced when I first saw it. But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered whether the outrage was actually part of the appeal, especially when you look at how Sweeney’s past controversies have played out.

We’ve fallen prey once again. First, it was the diabolical American Eagle ‘great jeans’ ad, which I, quite frankly, have no defence for, and there are still many unanswered questions about the multitudes of people who signed off on that and thought, "Yeah, this is great".

Then the ambiguous political stance after being called a "MAGA Barbie".

"I’ve never been here to talk about politics. I’ve always been here to make art, so this is just not a conversation I want to be at the forefront of," Sweeney told Cosmopolitan earlier this year. "And I think because of that, people want to take it even further and use me as their own pawn. But it’s somebody else assigning something to me, and I can’t control that."

It’s recently been reported she’s lost 200,000 Instagram followers off the back of the ad, but she still has around 25 million followers – and, more importantly, she has the entire internet talking about her.

So this isn’t just about an actress agreeing to do a sexy advert. Sweeney is seemingly increasingly building a strategic business, and controversy appears to be part of that.

We’re living in a rage-bait economy, and yet, the penny still hasn't dropped.

We could just swipe across and ignore it, but instead we amplify it. We post about it, argue about it, write articles about it (as I am right now), make videos about it and, ultimately, make it more prominent.

Empowerment? Exploitation? Simply capitalism? Maybe we’ve been so busy arguing over Sydney Sweeney that we’ve failed to notice she’s already achieved what she set out to do.