Mattel is reportedly being sued after mistakenly linking to a porn website on packaging for its new Wicked movie dolls.
A South Carolina woman claimed she and her daughter were “irreparably harmed” after her daughter visited the porn website due to the mixup, reported Entertainment Weekly on Tuesday, December 4, citing court documents it had obtained.
According to the outlet, Holly Ricketson filed a proposed class-action suit in Los Angeles federal court. She said her daughter had “used an iPhone to visit the website shown” on the packaging of the Wicked doll purchased by her mother.
“To her absolute shock the website, ‘Wicked.com,’ had nothing to do with the Wicked Doll. Rather, Wicked.com pasted scenes of pornographic advertisements across her phone screen,” the complaint said, adding that Ricketson and her child were “horrified” by the website’s content.
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Ricketson’s lawsuit accuses the toymaker of unjust enrichment, negligence and violation of California’s false advertising law, among other things, per Entertainment Weekly.
Us Weekly has reached out to Mattel for comment, but a spokesperson told EW, “The Wicked Dolls have returned for sale with correct packaging at retailers online and in stores to meet the strong consumer demand for the products. The previous misprint on the packaging in no way impacts the value or play experience provided by the product itself in the limited number of units sold before the correction. We express our gratitude to our consumers and retailers for their understanding and patience while we worked to remedy the issue.”
Mattel apologized last month after packaging on its Wicked movie tie-in dolls depicting Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, contained a link to a porn site. The mishap went viral on social media.
“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 spokesperson for Mattel told Us Weekly at the time. “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.”
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However, in a statement to EW, one of Ricketson’s attorneys, Roy T. Willey IV, accused Mattel of breaking trust with consumers.
“This lawsuit is not just about recovering the cost of these dolls; it is about holding corporations accountable for the responsibility they have to safeguard children,” said Willey. “When a company markets a product to young children, it has an obligation to ensure that every aspect of that product — from its design to its packaging — is free of risks to their safety and well-being.”
