The Change The Mascot campaign, the coalition aiming to force a change to the name of Washington’s professional football team, on Friday released an advertisement that aims to show defenders of the name that their football experience would be no different without it.
The ad’s release comes alongside the release of other Super Bowl advertising, though it won’t be shown during the big game on Feb. 1. The campaign brought in more than $20,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to fund production of the 30-second ad. A 30-second ad slot for this year’s Super Bowl costs approximately $4.5 million.
Titled “Take It Away,” the ad “highlights that changing the Washington NFL team’s mascot will not alter the fan experience or their spirit for the team,” Change The Mascot said in a release.
It does so by showing a big play in the team’s recent history, a 76-yard Robert Griffin III touchdown run from an October 2012 victory over the Minnesota Vikings (the Washington Post called the play “a run for the ages,” and Washington went on to win the NFC East Division later that season). Everything from the play looks as it did when it was originally broadcast, except the team’s name and logos are digitally removed from jerseys, helmets, the field, and the broadcast. The ad concludes with the tagline, “Take it away and it’s still Washington football.”
“Our ‘Take It Away’ spot demonstrates that changing the name would not take anything away from the fan experience,” Oneida Representative Ray Halbritter and NCAI Executive Director Jackie Pata said in the release. “By keeping the mascot, the Washington team’s ownership is forcing fans and players to support a dictionary-defined racial slur. Washington fans and players shouldn’t be put in that position. They should be able to root for a team that honors the most basic notions of civility and respect. No Americans should be treated as targets of racial slurs — and no fans or players should be forced to support such slurs as a condition of supporting a sports team. It is time for Dan Snyder to change the mascot.”
Watch it:
This is the second straight year the campaign has released an ad around the Super Bowl. Last year’s, titled “Proud to Be,” garnered national attention through social media even though it didn’t run on TV until June during the NBA Finals. The campaign has also run radio ads in various NFL markets against the name and recently began robo-calls in the D.C. area to draw more awareness to it.
Washington owner Daniel Snyder has repeatedly defended the team’s name as an “honor” and a “tradition,” vowing to “NEVER” change it. But Native Americans have opposed it for more than 40 years, and in the last two years, it has faced increasing opposition from lawmakers, religious leaders, civil rights groups, and current and former NFL players. Monday, the Fritz Pollard Alliance, a major civil rights group with close ties to the NFL, publicly announced its opposition to the name. It has faced legal scrutiny too: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeals Board invalidated six of the team’s federal trademark protections in June on grounds that the name is “disparaging to Native Americans.” The team is currently appealing that ruling in federal court, with a trial date set for June.
Though Washington slumped to a 4–12 season, the ad may not be the only time the team is in the news during Super Bowl week. University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Az., this year’s Super Bowl host, was the site of pre-game protests when Washington played the Arizona Cardinals there in the second week of this season.