During the Major League Baseball (MLB) playoffs last week, a series of sexually suggestive advertisements sparked public criticism and raised questions about the league’s advertising policies. The commercials, which featured Sydney Sweeney promoting a gambling prediction market and Megan Fox endorsing a male enhancement product, aired repeatedly during playoff broadcasts, prompting backlash from fans and even a professional player.
Alex Call, a left fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers who was not part of the postseason roster, expressed his disapproval on social media. Call highlighted concerns about children’s exposure to the ads, writing that his son’s viewing experience was disrupted by the advertisements featuring “half-naked women.” His comments echoed those of other viewers, including an entrepreneur and a mother, who criticized the ads for their potential to exploit younger audiences and detract from the family-friendly nature of baseball.
The MLB playoffs attract significant viewership, with postseason games averaging nearly 4.5 million viewers last year—a figure not seen since 2017. Rights to televise the games are shared by Fox Sports and TNT Sports, with Fox Sports having extended its contract through 2028 for $5.1 billion. These networks are responsible for selecting commercial slots and approving the advertisements that appear during game breaks, earning substantial revenue from advertisers and agencies.
Approval of advertisements involves legal review primarily on the agency and client side before pitches reach the networks, which set standards for acceptable content. MLB maintains its own “Advertising Standards & Rules for Baseball Programming,” which prohibit certain products, including tobacco, e-cigarettes, and, notably, “sexual enhancement products” and sports-betting advertisements—unless such content is preauthorized in writing by the league.
Despite the stated prohibitions, the commercials featuring Sweeney and Fox were cleared to air because the promoted products were deemed “MLB authorized.” For instance, Novig, the prediction market backed by Sweeney, is officially sanctioned by MLB. This reflects a broader shift within the league toward embracing sports gambling, a marked change given baseball’s historical resistance to the practice due to past scandals involving game betting.
Legal experts note that MLB’s evolving stance on gambling sponsorship is more remarkable than objections to the ads’ content. Marc Edelman, a sports law professor, pointed out that players were once barred from endorsing casinos, making current approvals a significant reversal in policy.
Once commercials are approved and broadcast, networks rarely remove them from the air, given the pre-air legal vetting process. Fox’s internal guidelines require submission of ads several days ahead of broadcast for preclearance, and while MLB retains ultimate authority to reject or halt advertisements during its programming, such occurrences are infrequent.
Neither MLB, Fox Sports, TNT Sports, nor the companies behind the advertised products responded to requests for comment. The incident has nonetheless sparked renewed conversations about the balance between commercial interests, audience sensibilities, and the evolving policies surrounding sports advertising in professional baseball.