A class action lawsuit against Mattel is picking up steam after the company sold dolls with the URL of a pornographic website printed on the packaging. Court documents say a woman from South Carolina filed the lawsuit over a special edition doll from the new movie Wicked. She claims that her daughter visited the website printed on the packaging, and it had “nothing to do with the Wicked doll.”
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Mattel explained the mix-up in a statement to Variety on Tuesday. The company apparently intended to direct customers to the movie’s official website, WickedMovie.com. Instead, it directed them to the website for a pornographic film distributor called Wicked. The unnamed plaintiff claims that Mattel did not offer her a refund when contacted about this issue. She further claims that she and her daughter suffered “emotional distress” due to this misprint.
“These scenes were hardcore, full on nude pornographic images depicting actual intercourse,” reads the class action lawsuit. “Plaintiff’s minor daughter immediately showed her mother the photographs and both were horrified by what they saw. If plaintiff had been aware of such an inappropriate defect in the product, she would not have purchased it.”
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The toys have already been pulled from shelves at retailers around the country so the printing error can be fixed. Mattel’s statement said the company is “aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls, primarily sold in the United States, which intended to direct consumers to the official WickedMovie.com landing page.” It advised customers to “discard the product packaging or obscure the link.”
Additionally, Universal Pictures’ chief marketing officer Michael Moses spoke to Variety about this issue. He said: “I don’t think that all press is good press. I always categorize incidents between what might actually damage the desire to see the movie and what might not. I think that was an example of one that’s an anecdote more than a threat.”
Wicked opened in theaters on Friday, November 22nd and has done better than expected at the box office so far, with a $112 million opening. At the time of this writing, it has grossed a total of about $360 million worldwide. The film is an adaptation of a hit Broadway musical by the same name, which is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz. It stars Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. It is still playing now in theaters around the world.