What's the most mis-advertised thing you've ever seen?

[Matthew Wilson]

The trailer for the (excellent) British film This Is England was different from the actual film, the trailer made it look like a coming-of-age story set in 80s England. this was true until about halfway through when Skinhead Combo arrived and the film took a dark turn dealing with racial tensions and violence.

Still a damn good film.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

I'll just leave this little example of how to not advertise your painkiller here...

 

[tahrey]

Trigun is reasonably child friendly, or at least young-teen. It covers some grown up issues, suffers serious Cerberus Effect and there's a tiny amount of gore, but you could probably make it Cartoon Network friendly without much work.

Now, cast your mind back to the mid 90s, and you had terribly misguided people marketing Akira, Battle Angel Alita, and - of course - The Guyver as childrens' fare. THAT'S a massive case of not reviewing your product before sending it to market, and just assuming it's kiddie stuff because it's animated...
(luckily they learnt their lesson before inflicting Urotsukidoji on the western world)

Touch of that with Princess Mononoke as well...

 

[iphonerose]

snip

Your images don't exist anymore

Dead Island.

You know it's true - the gameplay trailer was cringeworthy, and the original was nowhere near as emotional as everyone says. Even the CEO admitted it'll be like Left 4 Dead more than anything else.

Dead Island looks awesome, I don't know what trailer you were watching

OT: Eragon the movie, it sucked so much more then any trailer could have ever shown

snip?

 

[artanis_neravar]

I'll just leave this little example of how to not advertise your painkiller here...

Is that what head on is for? I could never figure it out

 

[artanis_neravar]

snip

Your images don't exist anymore

snip??

snip just means I'm quoting you but the actual quote is long and it would make my post long. but if you follow your links they lead to a 404 error

 

[leedwashere]

I'm well aware that this isn't *actually* how it was advertised, but it still tickles me



captcha: you? terefif

no, captcha, I'm not terefif. leemee alone

 

[Dags90]

Surprisingly about little people and surprisingly not a romantic comedy.

 

[tahrey]

Ford, babe, I know you made a good truck, but 30MPG is a load of horse shit. I own one of them. Best damn vehicle I've ever driven by far. 17MPG is the best I've ever gotten out of it, and right now it's averaging only 15. I could probably push it to 20 if I leaned it the hell out and drove like the gas in the tank was the last reserve on Earth, but come on. 30MPG? 300 cube engine? In a pickup truck?

That's an incredible bit of optimistic marketing. I bet you couldn't get 30MPG US out of a pickup with half that capacity in 1983...

Though maybe, perhaps, they're referring to a special order version (which no-one ever ordered, and they never had the actual ability to build past homologation minimums, with said minimum being used as company vehicles) with a super-long switchable overdrive, extra streamlining, multi point fuel injection, twin spark and cylinder deactivation, driven on the highway at a constant 35mph (with trucks blaring past at 65)?

For comparison my 2001, 1.6L, 4-cylinder, fuel injected, electronic ignition, streamlined (*almost* a coupe but not quite) car running on modern 95RON fuel can brush 60MPG US... at 25-30mph in top gear... on a slight downgrade... A flat 70mph (by GPS) cruise is more like 32 MPG.

Perhaps they were using one of those water injection systems or something :-D

 

[TheKruzdawg]

Kick-Ass. I went into that movie thinking it was going to be a hilarious action-comedy, with a general bright demeanor. Instead, I got a darker comedy with a tone more in line with the Departed.

I still liked the movie, I just think I would have liked it a lot more if I had expected it to be THAT dark of a movie when I walked in. I was taken a little bit by surprise

 

[iphonerose]

snip

Your images don't exist anymore

snip??

snip just means I'm quoting you but the actual quote is long and it would make my post long. but if you follow your links they lead to a 404 error

oh ryt lol. oh ok, but if you right click and say open image in new tab, they still work

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

The original commercial line up for the PSP. You know the one with the two squirls (who were portrayed as black urban sterotypes) talking about playing with nuts, or the one with the two lumps of dust with mexican accents.

not only where these commericals racist but i didn't even know what the hell they were advertising until the PSP logo came up.

Eggraptor on newgrounds did a great flash making fun of the squirl commercial
check it out: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/460535

 

[Soviet Steve]

Being a fan of Fallout and Fallout 2, I'd say the title of Fallout 3.

 

[mcnally86]

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, in the sense that it WASN'T advertised.

That is the EXACT reason The Expendables out-sold Scott Pilgrim on their opening weekends.

It was advertized. They had a couple trailers with good songs. Made me want the soundtrack not the movie though. She wasn't that pretty that someone should murder 7 people to date her.

 

[Jabberwock King]

Evony online. Never played it, but they started using lady skin to advertise. Real classy right?

 

[Woodsey]

Dead Island.

You know it's true - the gameplay trailer was cringeworthy, and the original was nowhere near as emotional as everyone says. Even the CEO admitted it'll be like Left 4 Dead more than anything else.

The gameplay trailer showed solely gameplay footage, although I agree that I can't see the game being particularly emotional or interesting from a story perspective. That's not a definite though.

And it did look pretty funny, especially if you were going to play in co op.

...no it didn't. Halfway through it scrolled through shots of happy people in bikinis I was supposed to feel sorry for.

EDIT: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110125-Deep-Silver-Releases-First-In-Game-Teaser-for-Dead-Island

I was talking about the 11 minutes worth of footage (they keep calling it a trailer, its not, I see the confusion), not a one minute fly-by over the setting. But yeah, that's not a gameplay trailer - there's no gameplay.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Dead Space 2.

That is all.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Record of Agarest War. They advertised it as a hentai game. In actuality, it is a decent SRPG with dating sim elements.

...You think so? The only reference to it being hentai that I remember was the 'HOT PIX INCLUDED!' on the back of the box. (Yes, it really said that.)

 

[thethingthatlurks]

I'll just leave this little example of how to not advertise your painkiller here...

Is that what head on is for? I could never figure it out

Huh, now that you mention it, the bloody ad doesn't give any indication as to the purpose of this stuff, sans it needing to be applied directly to the forehead.

 

[ZombieGenesis]

I'm well aware that this isn't *actually* how it was advertised, but it still tickles me



captcha: you? terefif

no, captcha, I'm not terefif. leemee alone

As one of the few people who genuinly thought the Shining was a dissapointment,I would have RATHER it been like this. Jack Nicholson in a heart warming family film? I'm not ashamed to admit I would love that.

Very well made parody, this now goes high on the list.