By August Brown, Los Angeles Times
One of the most coveted pieces of Super Bowl merch this year won’t be sold in stores, and the NFL probably doesn’t want to see it in the stands.
It’s a rally towel with a cute, punting bunny graphic from acclaimed L.A. illustrator Lalo Alcaraz on one side, honoring this year’s halftime show performer Bad Bunny. But there’s an unambiguous message on the other side — “ICE OUT.”
Before the game, activists clandestinely distributed 15,000 of them to fans entering Levi’s Stadium for the Super Bowl, seeding grassroots support toward a performer who spoke up for Latinos and immigrants at the Grammy Awards last week.
Though the NFL prefers the game — and its halftime show — 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.
“I’m a big ‘Joy is resistance’ person,” said Shasti Conrad, a leader of the group Contra-ICE and a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. “Today is a celebration of American sports, and there are opportunities to really be heard here. It’s 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.”
Such pushback was enough to keep President Trump from attending the game in person — “I’m anti-them,” Trump said earlier, about performers Bad Bunny and Green Day. “I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”
While a competing halftime show from Kid Rock for Turning Point USA attempted to rally the MAGA faithful, a pre-game set from Green Day needled ICE agents: “Wherever you are: quit that s— job you have,” Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong said. “Come on this side of the line.”
The NFL keeps tight reins on messaging from its halftime show performers, but this year’s 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.
On his way to winning the Grammy for album last week, the Puerto Rican megastar was emphatic: “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans,” he said, castigating ICE. “The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that’s more powerful than hate is love. … So please we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. We don’t hate them. We love our people. We love our family and there’s a way to do it with love.”
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 “Bordertown.” Bad Bunny fans will recognize the Puerto Rican pava straw hat in the graphic, along with some unsubtle anti-ICE imagery.
“Art 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,” Alcaraz said in a statement to The Los Angeles Times. “In 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.”
Conrad says Bad Bunny’s 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. “I think he’ll use this platform to make sure it’s clear he’s on the right side of history.”
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’s “not the same as the people putting their bodies on the line in Minneapolis,” Conrad said, but it’s likely to be extremely visible during the broadcast. “I hope it gives cover to people so they feel like they can participate in ways big and small.”
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’s performance is likely to be more subtle and celebratory, having the world’s biggest Latin artist play at the most quintessentially American cultural event is a statement in itself.
“With so many cameras and eyes on the stadium, it’s going be hard to miss,” Conrad said. “The vast majority of Americans see ICE’s actions as a massive overreach. They’re terrorizing communities, and even some Trump voters have buyer’s remorse seeing images of a 5-year-old kidnapped and detained. That doesn’t feel American, and folks are saying ‘enough.’ “
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