Multinational toy company Mattel has issued an apology after it was discovered that the packaging for its “Wicked” themed toys directed customers to an explicit pornography site.
The doll collection, including fashion dolls, singing figurines, and deluxe collectible models, was pulled from the shelves at Target as of Monday and is in the process of being removed from other major retailers, such as Walmart, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Best Buy, DSW, and Amazon, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The boxes were printed with the address of the website wicked.com, which features graphic adult content, instead of the correct address, which is wickedmovie.com. The outlet noted that the wicked.com domain name has been registered to the owner since 1994.
“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,” a statement from Mattel issued on Sunday said.
“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.”
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The “Wicked” movie is a musical based on the popular Broadway show that explores the events before Dorothy arrives in Oz. The film features a high-profile cast, with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo playing the leading roles of Elphaba and Glinda. It’s scheduled to hit theaters on November 22.
Erivo made headlines last month after her strong reaction to a fan-edited version of the movie poster, which was altered to more closely resemble the well-known Broadway poster. The actress was furious to see that her eyes were covered by her hat in the edited version circulating online, as The Daily Wire previously reported.
“None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us,” Erivo said of the altered movie poster.
“The original poster is an Illustration,” she continued. “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 an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.”