A news anchor on KCBD Fox34 in Lubbock, Texas is in hot water with ARMY after a xenophobic joke he made about BTS‘ new collaboration with Oreo cookies. Anchor James Eppler has gotten major pushback from the K-pop superstars’ fanbase after a segment this week in which he first explained that the new team-up between the cookie and the band comes flavored in Hotteok, a popular Korean street food that features a pancake stuffed with brown sugar and cinnamon that the group’s members have said they ate as kids, then amended what appeared to be his attempt at a hot take joke.
“It does sound good, right?,” Eppler said in a fan-posted grab of the segment. “The cookie’s wafer is BTS’ signature color, purple. The wafers are also engraved with one of 13 designs, which spell out a message to fans when put together. And that is: ‘death to America,’ which I think is really strange.”
After someone else in the studio laughed, Eppler quickly backtracked and denied that the cookies had a nefarious, anti-American slogan, adding, “no, it’s not,” but not before one of his co-anchors called him out and asked, “Why would you say that?”
As you can imagine, the attempt at humor did not go over well with the fiercely loyal ARMY, who flooded the comments on reposts of the video with furious anger over what they deemed a racist and xenophobic comment. At press time, spokespeople for BTS, Fox34 and Oreos parent company, Mondelēz International, had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.
“Come on that is just not a right thing to say and he knows it. Even his co-hosts knows it,” wrote one, with another saying simply, “THIS IS NOT FUNNY,” and a third opining, “JAMES EPPLER RACIST.”
ARMY were incensed, posting such comments as: “I think @Oreo should ask @fox34 why they’re are attaching a vile message like that to the oreo brand on national TV. It’s defamatory and damaging to both your brand and your brand ambassadors,” “We respectfully ask @Oreo
if their brand endorses this type of hateful and xenophobic comment; otherwise, we demand a response and an apology from @fox34” and “James Eppler’s racist comment about BTS & Oreo collaboration is dangerous and incites hate toward BTS. Racism and xenophobia cannot be ignored. Hold him accountable publicly @fox34 @KCBD11 @TTU_CoMC This shouldn’t be taken lightly.”
Earlier this week, as part of a new collaboration with Oreo, the group announced a limited-edition BTS Oreos brown sugar-pancake-flavored cookie featuring 13 unique embossed messages honoring the group’s 13th anniversary.
“For Oreo to be the first snacking brand we’ve collaborated with globally is a huge honor,” the Grammy-nominated group said in a statement about the collaboration that will reach more than 80 global markets. “We ate them as kids, we eat them in the studio, and now OREO is helping us share a taste of home with the world. We’re just so proud to add our own chapter to OREO’s amazing story.”
The cookies be available for presale starting on Monday, June 1 here. Fans will also be able to purchase the limited-edition cookies at retailers, while supplies last, beginning June 8. BTS is in the midst of a world tour in support of its chart-topping Billboard 200 album Arirang, which will have them playing their fourth show this week at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas before taking a break before a pair of shows at Busan Asiad Main Stadium in Busan, South Korea on June 12-13.
