November 22, 2013

Are Coke and FedEx Worried About Sponsoring the Redskins?

Field: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyhuggins/4672647600/sizes/l/in/photostream/">Stacey Huggins</a>/Flickr; Logo: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FedExField_logo.svg">FedEx</a>/Wikimedia Commons

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As more and more people have called for Washington’s pro football team to change its name, some folks have argued that the only way to get owner Dan Snyder to listen is to go after his wallet. That’s right: Boycott the team or, failing that, target its corporate sponsors.

On its official website, the team displays five of its largest partners: Ticketmaster, FedEx Express, Bud Light, Ameritel Corporation, and Bank of America. Mother Jones reached out to each of these sponsors, as well as a few others, to see if they had any comment on the campaign to push Snyder to drop the R-word—and whether they had considered dropping their sponsorship because of the controversy. Here’s what their spokespeople had to say:

Coca-Cola: “As sponsors, we do not play a role in decisions regarding NFL trademarks. Your questions can be better addressed by the team and the NFL.”

 

FedEx: “We understand that there is a difference of opinion on this issue. Nevertheless, we believe that our sponsorship of FedEx Field continues to be in the best interests of FedEx and its stockholders.”
 

 

New York Life: “The company has received no complaints. The company plans to assess the sponsorship at the conclusion of the season.”

 

Virginia Lottery: “We have not received complaints regarding the Redskins sponsorship and we are not considering dropping it.”

 

Ticketmaster: “We are declining to comment, but perhaps their sponsor StubHub would have something to say about this. StubHub is located right there in San Francisco.”

Thanks for the suggestion, Ticketmaster PR! Unfortunately, StubHub—like Ameritel, Anheuser-Busch, and Bank of America—did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

This article has been updated.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

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