Something baaaad is happening at Mattel. Remember when the toy company accidentally directed young fans to fly to Wicked.com (a porn site) to learn more about Glinda and Elphaba's adventures, instead of sending them to WickedMovie.com (the actual site)? Yeah… that snafu is unsurprisingly coming back to get them, and their little dog too.
According to Variety, a South Carolina woman is launching a class action lawsuit against Mattel after her young daughter accidentally visited the illicit site that had "nothing to do with the Wicked doll." The plaintiff alleges that Mattel didn’t offer a refund for the mistake and believes she and her child suffered “emotional distress” from the misprint. "These scenes were hardcore, full on nude pornographic images depicting actual intercourse," the lawsuit reads. "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.”
Unfortunately, Mattel couldn't just magic all the dolls off the shelves—althought they certainly tried. In the aftermath of the mistake being discovered, the toys were pulled from Target, Amazon, Kohl’s, and more, and a statement advising consumers who did not want to travel down that particular yellow brick road to "discard the product packaging or obscure the link" was issued.
Of course, the accidental X-rated link didn't dampen enthusiasm for the actual film at the box office. Wicked made a whopping $112.5 million in its opening weekend (via Box Office Mojo) and is currently sitting at a total domestic pot of $263.2 million. Lawsuit or not, Universal Chief Marketing Officer Michael Moses doesn't seem too worried about the musical's returns. "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,” he told Variety. “I think that was an example of one that’s an anecdote more than a threat.”