It's a mistake that could land Barbie in serious trouble. While Mattel recently marketed its dolls to the effigy of the characters of Wicked, the prequel film to The Wizard of Oz produced by Universal, which is scheduled for release on December 4 in our country, the derivative products have caused a major problem. On the figurine box, the URL did not point to the official website of the film (wickedmovie.com), but of course wicked.com, an online pornographic site. By going to the redirection address, we indeed discover a series of images (fortunately more suggestive than really explicit), with the teaser: “the ultimate destination for fans of award-winning adult content“.
Curse for Mattel
This printing error could cost Mattel dearly. In a statement, the company told The Associated Press that the problem almost exclusively affects dolls sold in the United States, and that action has been taken.immediately” to remedy this. Numerous references have thus been removed from online sales sites and American shelves, without the company detailing precisely the extent of these “measures”. For the moment, no financial sanctions are envisaged, but the simple fact of removing thousands of affected dolls from sale risks quickly increasing the bill. Not to mention the impact in terms of image.
The fact remains that at the time of writing these lines, some dolls are still available on Amazon.com. The French version of the platform, on the other hand, lists products without the possibility of purchasing them. The toy giant also asks parents to be vigilant, by throwing the packaging in the trash, or keeping it out of reach of their offspring. Remember that officially, Wicked singing dolls are intended for children aged four and over.
A woke conspiracy called into question
It didn't take long for some to cry conspiracy. On X/Twitter, a couple linked to the far-right Qanon movement quickly tried to use the printing error to their advantage, relays the American site Mashableaccusing Mattel of having deliberately slipped in the URL of a pornographic site on the packaging of one of its toys, with the obvious objective of corrupting American youth conservative values promoted by new President Donald Trump.
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