The Yocha Dehe Wintun nation of California has paid to air a 60-second commercial during halftime of tonight’s NBA Finals game calling for Washington’s NFL team to change its nickname. The ad, which can be seen above, features a voiceover listing names Native Americans are or have been “proud to be” called by—Navajo, Inuit, mother, father, Geronimo, forgotten, unyiedling, and so on. Absent from the list is the Washington nickname, which team owner Daniel Snyder has described as a “badge of honor.” As the spot concludes, the narrator says “Native Americans call themselves many things. The one thing they don’t…” while the camera stops on an image of the Washington football helmet.
The ad will air in six major media markets (Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Washington), and a two-minute long version—originally produced (and previously released) by the National Congress of American Indians—can be seen here.
