‘Wicked’ dolls pulled from stores due to porn link on packaging: Buzz

Mattel is apologizing after a wickedly bad mistake.
The parent company of Barbie announced Sunday that it is pulling its “Wicked” movie dolls after listing a link to a porn website on the toys’ packaging. The film adaptation of the Broadway musical, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, is rated PG.
“Mattel was made aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls, primarily sold in the U.S., which intended to direct consumers to the official WickedMovie.com landing page,” a statement said. “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.”
According to Rolling Stone, the dolls, including Grande’s Glinda and Erivo’s Elphaba characters, left the word “movie” off the URL on the packages — inadvertently promoting the website address for the Wicked Pictures adult film company.
The Hollywood Reporter reports the dolls have been pulled from Target and are in the process of being removed from other retailers, including Walmart, Amazon, Macy’s, Kohl’s and Best Buy.
“Wicked,” based on Chittenango native L. Frank Baum’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” will be released in theaters on Nov. 22 with a cast that includes Grande, Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum. A sequel is scheduled to be released next year.
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