Poppie Platt Called Sweeney 'Patriarchy's Dream.' Then She Quit X.

Poppie Platt published a column in The Telegraph on September 14 calling Sydney Sweeney "what patriarchy's dreams are made of" ... and ten days later, per Fashion Times, her X account was gone. Her stated reasons are unconfirmed. The ad is still running.

The piece was titled "Sydney Sweeney is not a girl's girl." Platt wrote that "the issue is that Sweeney's talent is beginning to play second fiddle to her pretty face." That is a measurable argument about a performer's career trajectory. What followed was not a rebuttal of the argument.

Online, attention shifted from the Novig ad to Platt herself. People circulated her photo alongside Sweeney's. "Why does the word jealousy come to mind?" one commenter wrote. "Ugly women hating on a hot woman because men desire her more," wrote another, per Yahoo Style Canada. The argument being made was not about the ad at all.

Platt was not the only journalist pulled into this. Zoe Williams, a Guardian columnist, wrote that Sweeney appeared "begging for controversy" in the Novig spot, her expression suggesting she found the provocation entirely deliberate. Williams also faced what Yahoo Style described as "brutal" harassment.

Candice Norwood, a reporter at The 19th who had previously criticized Sweeney's 2025 American Eagle campaign, wrote against the Novig ad too. She drew the same response online.

The playbook across all three cases was identical: locate a photo of the writer, post it next to Sweeney's, call the criticism jealousy. "They all fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch," another commenter wrote, per Yahoo Style Canada. The logic on offer is that appearance disqualifies the opinion.

'A little bullying is good for people'

On Reddit, a commenter discussing Platt's account deletion wrote: "A little bullying is good for people." Another user agreed, arguing the harassment might help critics "question their decisions" without causing "real harm," per Fashion Times. The threshold for what counts as real harm went unexamined in that thread.

The Novig ad launched September 9. It has drawn protests from professional athletes including Ariarne Titmus, Felicity Palmateer and Gracie Kramer, a full SNL parody, a Daily Show segment, and coverage in late-night shows across multiple countries. The cycle has run in three distinct phases: the ad itself, the athlete and academic backlash, and now the backlash-to-the-backlash, which targets the writers who generated the first two rounds of coverage.

That third phase is doing what the second phase could not: it is making the story about the critics, not the ad. For Novig, this is not obviously a problem.

Platt's column is still up at The Telegraph. Her X account is not.

Ad Watch News is an independent commentary site with no affiliation to Poppie Platt, Zoe Williams, Candice Norwood, Sydney Sweeney, Novig, The Telegraph, The Guardian, or The 19th. This analysis draws from the outlets listed below.

Poppie Platt Called Sweeney 'Patriarchy's Dream.' Then She Quit X.

'A little bullying is good for people'

Sources & further reading

Jane Smith Is Out at Family First. 'Effective Immediately.'

Sydney Sweeney Posts 'Send Nudes' Photos and One Caption: 'Trust Me'

Klitschko Promises Kaya: 'She Will Remember the Person She Was'