A misprint has seen a porn website link appear on the packaging for the new Wicked dolls (Mattel)
Toy company Mattel has apologised after a web address linking to the wrong website – which hosts pornography – was mistakenly printed on the packaging for its dolls promoting the Wicked movie.
Based on the smash-hit Broadway and West End musical, itself based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the film stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
As part of the marketing for the film, Barbie producer Mattel is selling dolls based on the main characters and which look like the actresses, but eagle-eyed customers were quick to notice something not quite right about the packaging.
Instead of directing fans to wickedmovie.com, the packaging instructs people to go to the URL wicked.com, which is a site that produces “quality parody porn movies.”
Apologising for the mix-up, a Mattel spokesperson advised parents that the website was “not appropriate for children”, adding: “We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this.
“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.”
Of course, the internet didn’t hold back when it came to making fun of the error.
In 2027: “Do yall remember when Mattel put a NoPor page on the Wicked dolls packaging and manual by accident in 2024?” pic.twitter.com/2WLNKSNwcW
— Chico Muñeca™ (@DollBoy29) November 10, 2024
Someone had to inform the CEO of Mattel ‘sir, we’ve printed a link to a porn site on the packaging for the official Wicked dolls instead of the correct web address’ https://t.co/46Wv7Grvbg pic.twitter.com/snhpN3ssAZ
— Lydia Tárt (@hannahtindle) November 10, 2024
target employees are gonna be sent to the floor with sharpies to fix those wicked dolls thats whats gonna happen here lmfao
— Claire (@kuma_kurea) November 10, 2024
This is not the first controversy the film has faced ahead of its release. Last month, Erivo called a fan-made redesign of an advertising poster the “wildest, most offensive thing.”
Earlier in the month, an ode to the Broadway poster showed Glinda (Grande) whispering into Elphaba’s (Erivo’s) ear.
Unlike the original image, the movie’s poster was slightly different so Erivo’s face was clearly visible, rather than her eyes being obscured by a hat.
An edit of the poster was subsequently shared on the Instagram account @wickedfansmexico, and more similarly matched the original by lowering Elphaba’s hat and moving Grande’s hand.
“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posing the question ‘Is your pu**y green’,” Erivo wrote on the social media platform. “None of this is funny, none of it is cute, it degrades me, it degrades us.
“The original poster is an illustration. I am a real life human being, who chose to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer… because without words we communicate with our eyes. Our poster is a homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me, and that is deeply hurtful.”
The film adaption also stars Bridgerton hunk Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, and Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible.
Wicked is set to be released on 22 November with Wicked Part Two scheduled for a year later.
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