<\/p>\n
One of the most coveted pieces of Super Bowl merch this year won\u2019t be sold in stores, and the NFL probably doesn\u2019t want to see it in the stands.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a rally towel with a cute, punting bunny graphic from acclaimed L.A. illustrator Lalo Alcaraz on one side, honoring this year\u2019s halftime show performer Bad Bunny. But there\u2019s an unambiguous message on the other side \u2014 \u201cICE OUT.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the game, activists clandestinely distributed 15,000 of them to fans entering Levi\u2019s Stadium for the Super Bowl, seeding grassroots support toward a performer who spoke up for Latinos and immigrants at the Grammy Awards last week<\/a>. <\/p>\n Though the NFL prefers the game \u2014 and its halftime show \u2014 not become a referendum on the ICE raids that have brutalized American cities over the last year, the group behind the effort hopes the signs are inescapable in the crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a big \u2018Joy is resistance\u2019 person,\u201d said Shasti Conrad, a leader of the group Contra-ICE and a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. \u201cToday is a celebration of American sports, and there are opportunities to really be heard here. It\u2019s about drawing attention to show that there is massive support to challenge Trump and the Department of Homeland Security. Any opportunity to push back is important.\u201d<\/p>\n Such pushback was enough to keep President Trump from attending the game in person \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m anti-them,\u201d Trump said earlier, about performers Bad Bunny and Green Day. \u201cI think it\u2019s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.\u201d <\/p>\n While a competing halftime show from Kid Rock for Turning Point USA <\/a>will try to rally the MAGA faithful, a pre-game set from Green Day needled ICE agents: \u201cWherever you are: quit that s\u2014 job you have,\u201d Green Day\u2019s Billie Joe Armstrong said. \u201cCome on this side of the line.\u201d<\/p>\n The NFL keeps tight reins on messaging from its halftime show performers, but this year\u2019s selection of Bad Bunny (a choice announced late last year) carries unusual salience for the battle over raids by federal agents on immigrant communities, which have led to the deaths of two protesters and many more detainees in custody.<\/p>\n On his way to winning the Grammy for album last week, the Puerto Rican megastar was emphatic: \u201cWe\u2019re not savage, we\u2019re not animals, we\u2019re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans,\u201d he said, castigating ICE. \u201cThe hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that\u2019s more powerful than hate is love \u2026 So please we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. We don\u2019t hate them. We love our people. We love our family and there\u2019s a way to do it with love.\u201d<\/p>\n This new bit of culture-jamming protest will continue that sentiment with art from Alcaraz, a famed SoCal cartoonist who worked on the animated series \u201cBordertown.\u201d Bad Bunny fans will recognize the Puerto Rican pava straw hat in the graphic, along with some unsubtle anti-ICE imagery. <\/p>\n \u201cArt has always been a way to confront hate wherever it appears. When injustice becomes part of everyday life, artists have a responsibility to make it visible,\u201d Alcaraz said in a statement to The Times. \u201cIn a public space and cultural moment the whole country is watching, images, color, and movement become a way to express love and push back against hate in plain sight.\u201d<\/p>\n Conrad says Bad Bunny\u2019s been loud about how vital immigrants are to the country, that Latinos should be celebrated, that Puerto Rico is a part of our country that should be celebrated. \u201cI think he\u2019ll use this platform to make sure it\u2019s clear he\u2019s on the right side of history.\u201d<\/p>\n Early in the day Sunday, around 50 activists with Contra-Ice set up along heavily-trafficked areas to pass the towels out to incoming Patriots and Seahawks fans in Santa Clara. It\u2019s \u201cnot the same as the people putting their bodies on the line in Minneapolis,\u201d Conrad said, but it\u2019s likely to be extremely visible during the broadcast. \u201cI hope it gives cover to people so they feel like they can participate in ways big and small.\u201d <\/p>\n Several athletes like figure skater Alysa Liu and skier Jessie Diggins have expressed similar sentiments during the Winter Olympics, and the Grammys were rife with artists speaking out against ICE overreach onstage. While Bad Bunny\u2019s performance is likely to be more subtle and celebratory, having the world\u2019s biggest Latin artist play at the most quintessentially American cultural event is a statement in itself.<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cWith so many cameras and eyes on the stadium, it\u2019s going be hard to miss,\u201d Conrad said. \u201cThe vast majority of Americans see ICE\u2019s actions as a massive overreach. They\u2019re terrorizing communities, and even some Trump voters have buyer\u2019s remorse seeing images of a 5-year-old kidnapped and detained. That doesn\u2019t feel American, and folks are saying \u2018enough.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the most coveted pieces of Super Bowl merch this year won\u2019t be sold in stores, and the NFL probably doesn\u2019t want to see it in the stands. It\u2019s a rally towel with a cute, punting bunny graphic from acclaimed L.A. illustrator Lalo Alcaraz on one side, honoring this year\u2019s halftime show performer Bad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2273135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2273134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/How-did-those-Bad-Bunny-themed-anti-ICE-towels-get-into-the.com2F2a2Fa12F61e168ae4178a7b71024d67d.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2273134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2273136,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273134\/revisions\/2273136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2273135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2273134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2273134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2273134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}