The toy company Mattel says it is taking “immediate action” after mistakenly printing a pornographic website address on the packaging for dolls released to tie in with the upcoming Wicked film.
Over the weekend, individuals began sharing photos online of the dolls’ packaging, which showed a link to wicked.com, instead of wickedmovie.com. The address was printed on boxes for Glinda and Elphaba dolls, the main characters in Wicked, played in the film adaptation by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo respectively.
Mattel released a statement on Sunday addressing the error.
“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,” the statement read.
“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.”
It appears the misprint has affected dolls sold at Target, Kohls and Amazon, the film’s official retail partners, but not other stores. The dolls are now listed as “currently unavailable” on Amazon’s US website, while the Hollywood Reporter said that by Sunday afternoon the dolls were no longer available for sale at Target.
Wicked, an adaptation of the hugely successful stage musical, will be released later this month around the world.