It’s been a Wicked movie mare of a weekend for global toy behemoth Mattel as it transpired that the web address listed on the packaging for character dolls from its latest kids’ movie took consumers to a porn site.
Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the popular Wizard of Oz musical spinoff, starring Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Cynthia Erivo and Arianna Grande, looks a nailed on festive season winner, though Barbie and Hot Wheels parent Mattel appears to be appealing to a less family-friendly extra demographic with the misprint mayhem.
The web address listed on the boxed dolls is wicked.com, instead of wickedmovie.com. When clicking on the link, users arrive at a porn site promoting upcoming flesh flick Kenzie Loves Girls 2, from a production house called Wicked Pictures. Wicked is also home to genre classics such as Sunny Goldmelons and The Hunger (hint: not the David Bowie/Peter Murphy vampire shocker). The wicked.com domain name has been registered to its owner since 1994, as evidenced by the motto “25+ years of award-winning movies.”
The toy company apologised last night: “Mattel was made aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls, primarily sold in the US, which intended to direct consumers to the official WickedMovie.com landing page,” read a statement. “We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this. Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children. Consumers who already have the product are advised to discard the product packaging or obscure the link and may contact Mattel Customer Service for further information.”
By Sunday afternoon, the entire Mattel-manufactured doll collection — which includes fashion dolls, singing figurines and deluxe collectible models — was no longer available for sale at Target, one of the leading US retail partners on the latest Universal/Mattel collab. The Mattel-produced line with the incorrect website address is reportedly also in the process of being pulled from shelves at Walmart, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Best Buy, DSW, Amazon.com and other retailers.
The character dolls being sold with the erroneous address include Grande’s Glinda and Erivo’s Elphaba. The products with misprinted websites have already popped up on eBay for up to $800 (£619). The dolls normally retail for $24.99 to $39.99.
