Mother Sues Mattel Over Adult Website Misprint on “Wicked” Dolls
A South Carolina woman says her daughter was traumatized after following an incorrectly printed web address to an adult website.
A South Carolina woman filed a class action lawsuit against toymaker Mattel, claiming she and her daughter suffered “emotional distress” after being directed to an explicit, adult website that was printed on the packaging for dolls based on characters in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, notes that first editions of the boxes for the dolls bore the website Wicked.com, an adult film website, instead of the correct address, WickedMovie.com.
The misprint led to a recall of the dolls, which were temporarily pulled from stores until the packaging could be replaced. Mattel apologized for the error and sent out a warning to parents to discard the product packaging or obscure the link.
But Holly Ricketson, a resident of Edgefield, South Carolina, claims that she purchased a Glinda doll for her daughter, who then saw the web address on the packaging and visited Wicked.com using Ricketson’s iPhone, according to USA Today.
According to Ricketson’s lawsuit, the site displayed sexually explicit advertisements featuring “hardcore, full-on nude” images of “actual intercourse,” which horrified both Ricketson and her daughter.
Ricketson is seeking damages, alleging that “the Products are adulterated, worthless, and unfit for its intended and advertised age-appropriate audience.” She also takes issue with Mattel’s failure to offer a full or partial refund to consumers who bought the dolls encased in packaging bearing the porn site address.
Ricketson claims Mattel has unjustly enriched itself by retaining revenue from the purchases of the flawed products despite violating its stated “labeling, marketing, and packaging” pledge of being appropriate for young children. The lawsuit also states that those, like Ricketson, who purchased the toys with packaging bearing the erroneous website address were “harmed” because they would not have otherwise purchased the toys had they known the erroneous address linked to an adult site.
Ricketson filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles, citing California’s civil code, which forbids products from making “false” and “deceptive” claims — in this case, that the toys were appropriate for children.
“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,” Mattel said in a statement to Variety. “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.”
Wicked is based on Stephen Schwartz’s Tony Award-winning stage hit and stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. The film has grossed more than $263 million domestically and $360 million globally since its debut on November 22, 2024. A second film in the series is scheduled for release in November 2025.
Citing the film’s box office success, Michael Moses, the chief marketing officer for Universal Pictures, the production company behind Wicked, previously told Variety that he didn’t think the printing mistake on the original packaging for the character dolls harmed the film’s ticket sales.
“I always categorize incidents between what might actually damage the desire to see the movie and what might not,” he said of the situation. “I think that was an example of one that’s an anecdote more than a threat.”
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