Toy manufacturing company Mattel has found itself in hot water over a major mistake in its line of Wicked dolls, released alongside the new movie version of the beloved musical.
After the dolls depicting the film’s stars, including Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo as witches Glinda and Elphaba, were distributed to shops worldwide, some eagle-eyed fans noticed an X-rated detail on the doll’s box.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Stars of Wicked on Weekend Sunrise.
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Alarmingly, the website was listed as wicked.com, which is not the movie’s home page wickedmovie.com, but that of a pornographic website.
One customer noticed the blunder and took to social media to call out the manufacturer.
“The official Mattel Wicked dolls link to a porn site on the box,” a user wrote on X on November 10, alongside photographic and video evidence.
“Hey @Mattel whoever is responsible for your marketing/packaging for the new official Wicked dolls has made a HUGE mistake!”
“That’s an insane oversight, someone getting fired lol,” one commenter said.
“Whoever did this needs to be fired immediately because why would they do that knowing that it’s mostly kids buying these dolls,” another said.
“Omfg it really does, I’m crying,” added a third.
“Recall incoming? Stickers over the website? What are the odds these boxes end up being worth anything?” another asked.
One declared: “This might be the biggest fail in official merch history, especially considering it’s meant for kids!”
As the issue began trending on TikTok, one user weighed in who claims to work in manufacturing.
“I work in manufacturing. This is on a LOT of people,” he wrote, “There’s multiple steps that this has to go through before being printed and not a single person thought to visit the website. Mattel didn’t think to purchase the domain”.
A spokesperson has since apologised for the blunder.
“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,” they told Variety.
“We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this.”
Wicked is set to be released in cinemas across Australia on November 21 following its Australian premiere last week.
The stars of the film, Erivo, Grande, Ethan Slater, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey and Marissa Bode, travelled down under for the first of several premieres across the world.