‘Wicked’ Apology: Mattel Issues Corporate ‘Our Bad’ for Misprinting ‘Wicked’ Movie Website on Doll Packaging
Oops.
As you must surely know by now, Mattel made a Wicked goof on the packaging for dolls associated with the upcoming movie. In attempting to label the boxes containing the doll with the movie’s official website, Mattel erred and instead printed the web address of a pornographic movie company.
A company representative had to hit the office on a Sunday to issue a heartfelt-corporate apology.
“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,” the company said in a statement on Sunday.
“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,” it said.
Mattel advised people who have already purchased the dolls to discard the packaging or obscure the link.
The misprint has been a boon for the over-18 site that Mattel misdirected doll-owners to, though – although it is probably due more to the news surrounding the mistake rather than curious people perusing the outside of the box.
In the last two days, searches for “wicked.com” (the URL misprinted by Mattel on the toy packages) have surged to their highest levels since mid-2012, according to the Google Trends analytics tool. The link goes to Wicked Pictures’ official website. Wicked Pictures primarily produces adult films that parody mainstream hit movies, and has featured the work of high-profile actors like Stormy Daniels.
But on the upside, the official site has also reported a spike in traffic, according to Google Trends.
The special-edition Wicked dolls can be found at retailers including Target, Amazon and Kohl’s. The dolls are in the likenesses of the characters of Elphaba, played by Cynthia Erivo, and Glinda, played by Ariana Grande, in Universal Pictures’ upcoming movie, which opens November 21st.