Mattel issues apology after Wicked doll boxes mistakenly link to porn website
Mattel, the company behind Barbie and Hot Wheels, has issued an apology after a website listed on its boxes for new Wicked dolls linked to a porn site.
Considering one of those is designed for kids, and the other definitely is not, it's safe to say this wasn't intentional.
The toys were released as part of the ongoing promotion for the upcoming musical movie Wicked, which stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo and is set to be released on November 22.
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Ads and posters have been popping up all over the globe to help raise hype for the movie, and as people continued to get excited Mattel launched a range of dolls inspired by the film's characters.
Fans could get their hands on doll versions of Glindas, Elphabas, Nessaroses, Madame Morribles, and Fiyeros, all of which were available in a range of stores including Target, Amazon and Walmart.
At a cost of up to $39.99, parents buying the dolls for their kids were no doubt hopeful the toys - and the boxes they came in - would bring their kids nothing but joy and age-appropriate fun, so it's no surprise that people were left shocked when someone spotted an issue with the website printed on the box.
In a now-viral post on Twitter, one shopper shared two pictures of the Glinda doll box, including one which showed the link for 'www.wicked.com'.
Alongside the photos, they wrote: "The official Mattel Wicked dolls link to a porn site on the box."
Sure enough, the URL leads to a website which is restricted to over-18s only - far from the 'PG' rating Wicked the movie has been given.
Other boxes containing Wicked dolls were found to feature the same link, prompting the poster to speculate that Mattel actually meant to link to the movie's official website, www.wickedmovie.com.
The company has since addressed the issue and acknowledged that it was indeed just a big mistake, and that steps are being taken to make things right.
In a statement to UNILAD, the company said: "Mattel was made aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls, primarily sold in the U.S., which intended to direct consumers to the official WickedMovie.com landing page. 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," the statement continued.
"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.”
Twitter users were left both shocked and amused by the unfortunate typo, with one person commenting: "Having worked in advertising AND as a copywriter AND being terrible at proofreading and attention to detail..this is my worst nightmare. Wicked dot com is a porn site. http://Wikedmovie.com is not. Oh dear."
UNILAD has reached out to Mattel for additional comment.
Topics: Film and TV, Viral, Twitter
Emily Brown