In a very big "oops," Mattel apparently accidentally left just one teeny, tiny, rather critical word off a URL printed on the packaging for some of its dolls—and the resulting URL directed customers to a porn website. As TMZ explains, the dolls involved are characters from the upcoming big-screen version of the popular Broadway musical Wicked, and the URL was supposed to point to the film's website, WickedMovie.com. Instead, the word "movie" was left off, and the resulting URL pointed to a very different, X-rated website. Mattel quickly apologized for the error and pulled the dolls from store shelves.
"I purchased the Singing Elphaba doll and upon inspection, the website printed on the back side [of the] Mattel box, right above the barcode is listed as ... an unaffiliated adult [not safe for work] 18+ website," reads one Reddit post cited by the BBC. Another poster confirmed finding the same URL on dolls carried in US Target and Walmart stores. By Sunday afternoon, the entire line of dolls had been pulled from Target stores, and Mattel was working on pulling affected dolls from other retailers, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
"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," reads a statement from the toy company cited by the Guardian. "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." (More Mattel stories.)
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