A group of politically oriented investment firms have written to PepsiCo, FedEx and Nike asking them to end their sponsorship and advertising relationships with the Washington Redskins over the NFL club’s nickname, Adweek reported.
The 87 firms, including First Peoples Worldwide, First Affirmative Financial Network, Trillium Asset Management and LLC Boston Common Asset Management oversee a combined $620 billion assets, Adweek said.
Among the firms’ declared goals include “social change,” “just society” and “social responsibility” and adhering to environment, social and governance (ESG) criteria.
The letters sent Wednesday come following the death of a Black man, George Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day and ensuing protests and riots, some of which have included the toppling and vandalizing of statues and monuments of figures from the Confederacy and Revolutionary War to white blues musician Stevie Ray Vaughan.
One of the investment firms said it was looking to capitalize on the reaction to energize its cause.
“This is a broader movement now that’s happening that Indigenous peoples are part of,” said Carla Fredericks, director of First Peoples Worldwide and director of the University of Colorado Law School’s American Indian Law Clinic.
Nike was targeted because it is the uniform and merchandise supplier to the Redskins while FedEx is the naming sponsor to the team’s home field in Landover, Maryland, FedEx Field.
None of the companies responded to TheHill.com for comment.
Daniel Snyder, who purchased the Redskins in 1999, has vowed not to change the name of the team, and in 2017 won a Supreme Court case reversing a decision of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board which voted to strip the Redskins of its trademarks because it determined that the name was disparaging.
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