A British retailer was selling Halloween costumes on its website on Friday that appeared bullet riddled and blood soaked and were described as “American footballer.”
The retailer also offered a similar costume depiction of another icon of Americana, a cheerleader, covered in blood spatter.
The two costumes were sold by the retailer Asda as part of its Halloween costumes for children.
The costumes caught the eye of someone who identified herself as Sheila Pinney of Bristol, UK, who created a Change.org petition on Thursday requesting that the retailer stop selling the offensive costumes.
The petition said the image of the costumes found on the company’s website didn’t clearly depict the costume being sold in stores. Pinney noted that the “bullet-style pattern is much more obvious on the costumes sold instore.”
The costumes seem to reference the recent spate of police shootings in America that have made international news and raised comparisons between police protocol and gun policy in the U.S. and United Kingdom.
The cheerleader costume she referenced appears below:
If only blood soaked clothing was left for Halloween. Unfortunately it’s kind of fitting for all-season-wear in America.
I guess that is their perception of America.
Really? We’re awash in an epidemic of gun violence and these costumes seem to reference police shootings specifically? I’m pretty sure they’re referencing our nation’s gun fetishism in general.
I studied abroad in England. My roommate asked me if someone was murdered if it made the front page. I told her in my home town just on average someone was murdered everyday, and that it would be rare for it to make the front page. She never asked me about “footballers” however.
Walmart owns Asda.