Mattel may be hoping for a little magic this week to help make a packaging problem on its “Wicked” dolls go away. The toy company has apologized for a misprint on boxes of its collection for the upcoming feature film based on the hit Broadway musical.
The dolls’ packaging was supposed to show the URL of WickedMovie.com, which takes customers to a website dedicated to the movie. Instead, a misprint led the packaging to show a similar, incorrect URL for an adult film website, leading to customers posting about the typo on social media.
Mattel said in a statement to Straight Arrow News on Monday, Nov. 11:
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. 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.
Mattel statement
As of Monday morning, the entire toy line was removed from Amazon, Target and Walmart’s websites. It is not known when the toys will be made available again with the corrected packaging and the link to the pornographic website changed.
However, the dolls were still available on Kohl’s site as of Monday at 10 a.m. Central Time.
The movie “Wicked,” which stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo as the witches of Oz, opens in theaters Nov. 22. By then “Wicked” fans are hoping the dolls will be back on shelves — as they will no doubt be a “popular” item this holiday season.