The anti-Redskins activist group “Change The Mascot” has posted a new video featuring the Washington Redskins with team logos blanked out to prove, the group says, that a Redskins game remains football without the logo.
The spot, titled “Take it Away,” features 30 seconds of Robert Griffin III’s amazing 76-yard touchdown run against the Minnesota Vikings from 2012. But if fans watching the clip are paying attention, they might notice that every time a Redskins logo appears onscreen it has been blanked out with a white disc both on uniforms and on the field.
The only verbal message in the ad appears at the end when, as the soundtrack of cheering fans continues, viewers see “Take it away and it’s still Washington football.”
“We looked for a play where people showed the most emotion, a play that really highlighted the best aspects of Washington football,” ChangeTheMascott.org spokesman Joel Barkin said. “The first time you watch it you might not even notice [the missing logo]. That’s sort of the point.”
The anti-Redskins groups, though, still seem to be fighting an uphill battle where public opinion goes. Two polls last year, in fact, showed that there is still strong support for the team keeping the name.
In September a Sports Illustrated/Marketing Research Resources poll found that only 23 percent of those responding said that the team should dump the name “Redskins.” But a second poll taken a month later found that only 14 percent agreed that a name change was necessary.
The new video was made for ChangeTheMascot.org jointly by the National Congress of American Indians and the Oneida Indian Nation.
The creators of the ad did not ask permission from either the team or the National Football League to use the clip from the 2012 game.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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