Topps Apologizes Over BTS ‘Garbage Pail Kids’ Card

The Topps Company has issued a statement on Wednesday, March 18, hours after receiving a backlash over "insensitive" and racially discriminatory portrayal of the BTS sticker card for its new Garbage Pail Kids "Shammy Awards" collection.

The sticker displays faces of BTS members looking scared as a Grammy trophy threatens to smash their already bruised faces and head. Fans have compared the BTS sticker to the "Harry Boa" sticker depicting Harry Styles yet with a much lighter depiction, compared to the "graphic image" of BTS's card.

The company released an official statement through its social media accounts saying that they "hear and understand" their customers. They apologized for including the said BTS stickers on the collection and vowed to remove the sticker card from the set as they have not yet "printed any of the sticker card."

However, people were not happy with the released "apology" statement, saying that the company failed to apologize to BTS for the negative message that the sticker conveyed and the whole Asian community. Fans said that the sticker showing BTS' members faces covered in bruises seems like a depiction of the increasing violent hate crimes presently experienced by Asian- Americans in the US.

Concerns had been raised on social media after series of vicious crimes against Asians and Asian Americans were reported this year, which urged activists and experts to demand the issue be addressed.

A report from Stop AAPI Hate says that around 3,800 racially-motivated attacks were faced by Asian-Americans over the past year as other Americans blamed the Asians for the COVID-19 virus, which started in Wuhan, China.

Many had expressed their disappointment over the said discrimination against Asian people, including Asian celebrities such as CL, a former member of K- pop group 2 NE 1, who shared a "Stop Asian Hate" campaign with the caption "We stand together. #StopAsianHate".