The power of a name!
Domain names are playing a part in the Washington Redskins naming controversy and things appear to be heating up once again with the NFL season just around the corner.
In fact, on June 30, 2014 the domain name RedskinsFacts.com was registered at Network Solutions under whois privacy and a very nice looking website was launched recently on the domain name. I’m not sure who is really behind the website but it does state “Sponsored by: Redskins Alumni” directly on the website. They also are using the @redskinsfacts handle on Twitter.com . This website is in support of keeping the name.
RedskinsFacts.net was registered on 7/23/2014 and is under whois privacy. No website is currently attached to the domain.
RedskinsFacts.org was registered on 7/24/2014 but this domain shows “Jones Intl” under the registrant name but the rest of whois appears to be under privacy. There are several people / companies who that could be.
Yesterday as well, (7/24/2014) three related domain names were registered to Burson Marsteller, LLC according to whois records.
Burson Marsteller is a public relations and communications company, provides clients with strategic thinking and program executions of public relations.
They hand registered domain names TheRealRedskinsFacts.com and also DisputedRedskinsFacts.com according to whois records. Both domain names were loaded up on YR.com name servers, which is owned by Young & Rubicam (Y&R) according to whois (Y&R owns Burson Marsteller according to Wikipedia). YR is also a marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting. FakeRedskinsFacts.com was also registered by Burson Marsteller, LLC according to whois records.
I do not know who hired Burson Marsteller or why they registered the domains but I would expect these sites to be up and running pretty quickly and I would also assume these were registered because of the RedskinsFacts.com site launch.
This is not some tiny PR firms going to bat behind these recent domain registrations!
Go Packers!
Hopefully they hire a true naming firm to help create the new name. I would hate for a football franchise with such a storied history to end up with a bad name.
When you don’t hire the right company you end up with horrible names like the NBA did with the New Orleans Pelicans. That has to be the worst name I have ever seen in professional sports.
Go Pelicans! It’s just stupid!