The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2024
Mattel printed a porn site's URL on Wicked doll boxes meant for WickedMovie.com
A one-letter-omitted URL on Wicked doll packaging sent toy buyers to a hardcore adult site, and a parent's stunned daughter became a class action.
Mattel · 2024-11
What happened
In November 2024, Mattel's limited-edition Wicked dolls — Elphaba and Glinda lookalikes sold at Target, Amazon and Kohl's ahead of the film's release — went out with boxes meant to point buyers at WickedMovie.com, the movie's official site. Instead, the printed URL read Wicked.com, a domain that for three decades has hosted Wicked Pictures, a hardcore adult studio.
The error surfaced within hours of the film's Los Angeles premiere, when photos of the boxes spread across X. Parents flagged that the box was aimed at children, and Mattel rushed out a statement: it 'deeply regretted this unfortunate error', was taking 'immediate action to remedy' it, and advised anyone who already owned the dolls to 'discard the product packaging or obscure the link'. There was no recall.
The mishap handed the adult site a windfall — searches and traffic to Wicked.com jumped for months — while a frustrated South Carolina parent filed a class action in December, alleging her daughter had been shown 'hardcore, full on nude pornographic images' and suffered emotional distress. Mattel had not offered her a refund.
Universal's chief marketing officer shrugged it off as 'an anecdote more than a threat' to the film's box office, and he was broadly right — Wicked set records. But for Mattel, the packaging error became a recurring punchline and a legal liability it had earned nothing to carry.
Why it happened
- A missing character in an approved URL slipped past packaging review — nobody checked what the printed domain actually resolved to
- A domain collision: the near-match Wicked.com belonged to an unrelated adult studio, so a URL that 'looked right at a glance' was a trap no one on the creative team spotted
- The product was aimed squarely at children, so the error's blast radius was parental outrage plus legal exposure, not a quietly corrected typo
The lesson
A URL printed on sold packaging is a promise fingers will follow — verify it resolves to the site you meant to print, because a near-match landing elsewhere is a brand disaster you shipped.
Aftermath
Mattel advised owners to cut the link off the box and offered no recall; the class action pressed on. The dolls themselves were a commercial hit and the film broke records, which is exactly why the blunder stung — a packaging typo turned a victory lap into a self-inflicted PR crisis and a legal bill.
Sources
- Variety — Mattel's 'Wicked' Movie Dolls Mistakenly List Porn Site on Packaging
- The Independent — Mattel sued for misprinting a porn site link on Wicked doll packaging
- The Straits Times — Mattel sued over Wicked dolls with porn website link
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