Mattel’s Accidentally X-Rated Wicked Doll Packaging Has Now Inspired a Lawsuit

As Wicked continues to rake it in at the box office and build hype as a serious awards-season contender, a merchandising snafu tied to the movie is also continuing to grab headlines. Early in November, before Wicked even hit theaters, Mattel had to issue an apology after it released dolls with packaging that mistakenly contained the URL for an adult-entertainment website, rather than the movie’s official landing page. Now, with a newly filed lawsuit, it seems a simple apology isn’t enough to make up for the error.

You can see how it happened—”wicked.com” being used instead of “wickedmovie.com”—but Mattel is surely wishing it had double-checked its copy before dropping wholesome witch dolls into stores with a little naughty surprise included. That goes double now that the toy company’s PR embarrassment has entered the legal arena, as Variety reports.

“According to court documents, a South Carolina resident is launching a class action lawsuit after purchasing the toy for her young daughter, who visited the X-rated website that had ‘nothing to do with the Wicked’ doll,” the trade writes; you can read the lawsuit itself in that link. “The plaintiff alleges that Mattel didn’t offer a refund and believes she and her child suffered ’emotional distress’ from the misprint.”

io9 hasn’t independently verified the contents of Wicked.com, but according to the lawsuit, the plaintiff and her daughter got an eyeful of “hardcore, full on nude pornographic images depicting actual intercourse … If plaintiff had been aware of such an inappropriate defect in the product, she would not have purchased it.”

After the packaging error became known, Mattel did pull the toy from shelves and issued a regretful statement (read it in full on the Hollywood Reporter), but obviously it didn’t get the message out in time to prevent certain consumers from going down the wrong internet rabbit hole.

Fortunately for Universal, the studio behind Wicked, the boo-boo hasn’t hurt ticket sales whatsoever. Speaking to Variety, the company’s head of marketing characterized the Mattel misprint as “an anecdote more than a threat” to the movie’s bottom line.

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