Wicked smart or publicity blunder?

“Not all publicity is good publicity.” — me

Now that that’s out of the way, after a surprising PR response, it feels like toy giant Mattel might not be as disappointed as you’d expect about a recent “printing error.”

The backstory

Mattel pulled special edition dolls that promoted the Universal film, Wicked, from stores after their packaging listed a porn site’s URL instead of the movie’s website. Not exactly the same target audience.

You can guess the public’s reaction, but Mattel’s words a couple of days later didn’t meet the more-than-a-little-mistake moment. In a statement to the Associated Press, a spokesperson said the company was made aware of the typo — Wicked.com (a porn site) was printed instead of WickedMovie.com (the movie’s site) — and blamed a misprint.

So, a multibillion-dollar company blamed a holy {bleep} typo on … the printer.

Are we to believe Mattel doesn’t have proofreaders to catch typos tiny and big? Whether you’re selling lemonade at a neighborhood stand or millions of toys worldwide, you expect someone to edit and quadruple-check every letter and number on packages before they’re produced. (Reminder: good editors and proofreaders are worth their weight in gold.)

Not a conspiracy theory, just a thought

Universal Studios had already poured massive marketing dollars into Wicked. The packages’ typo undoubtedly drew millions more eyeballs and reminded audiences of the film’s November 22 release. Remember, most of Wicked’s marketing dropped during the thick of the United States presidential election, so the website whoops likely awoke some would-be moviegoers from a monthslong fog.

What’s the damage?

No one wants to dump millions of dollars of inventory, but …

While I don’t think a family-focused company would deliberately cause chaos leading to a product release, the error generated a lot of attention for Mattel’s marketing partner. (The “award-winning adult content” site and resellers wave hi, too. 👋🏼)

It’s baffling that a monster-size toy company admitted it knew about an egregious error and still shipped the items. For instance, if I represented the above lemonade stand, I wouldn’t have signed off on a Mattel-like statement.  

There’s a reason companies invest in crisis management. In this case, Mattel’s response missed the mark.

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