History Main / AdDissonance

* The publicity ad for Shell Beach in ''Film/DarkCity''. It is one of the few happy and bright images in the entire movie, where the city is dark and run down. It gets truly dissonant because while the main character and his uncle remember growing up and living there, no one knows how to get there. It turns out that [[spoiler:the [[RealityWarper reality-warping]] aliens have implanted FakeMemories of the place in everyone; ''it never existed'']].

* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series uses this trope on more than one level; not only do the ads provide a blackly comic contrast to the post-apocalyptic wasteland, it's also made rather obvious that they were also rather at odds with the reality of everyday life ''before'' the war.

...Until, of course, we zoom out to see it playing on a flickering TV in the middle of a war zone, displayed on a rotting billboard in a GhostCity, or being beamed into the minds of some [[CityNoir grim]] {{Dystopia}}'s residents. The ad will (almost) always be for the MegaCorp that caused the whole mess in the first place, especially if it's a {{Cyberpunk}} work.

[[caption-width-right:350:Selling the American Dream against the hard truth of {{the Great Depression}}.]]

* Norwegian skeptic blogger Gunnar Tjomlid once noted that he got ads for the diet supplement Chili Forte on his blog despite it being the exact kind of product he's inclined to debunk.[[note]]The ads were provided by a third party, so he had no control over them.[[/note]] Indeed, he showed off a screenshot of these Chili Forte ads in a blog post arguing that Chili Forte is a scam.

* In a video explaining how Google [=AdSense=] works, the [=YouTuber=] Appabend invokes this trope by mentioning how he once saw an ad for ''Series/IronFist2017'' on Netflix right before a video criticizing ''Iron Fist'' for Orientalism.

* The various posters in ''VideoGame/BioShock1''. The special edition of ''VideoGame/BioShock2'' even comes with some print outs of them [[spoiler:with hidden messages printed in UV ink on the front]].

* ''Film/{{Brazil}}'': Advertisements for things like secure cruise lines ("A panic-free atmosphere!") and things to buy are all over the place, plus standard "anti-espionage" posters ("loose lips sink ships") on the offices. All of which are little more than literal window dressing to try to cover the colossally screwed-up, barely-functioning world the characters live in (one scene shows a road with an endless line of billboards on each side, which prevent anybody on the vehicles from seeing an endless arid wasteland lying beyond).

* ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'', especially in the areas added by ''Secret Armory of General Knoxx'' DLC, has optimistic, 20's style billboards advertising settlement on Pandora, [[DeathWorld a planet full of aggressive wildlife and homicidal bandits]].

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[[quoteright:350:[[TheGreatDepression https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ad_dissonance.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Selling the American Dream against the hard truth of {{the Great Depression}}.]]

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-> ''"Welcome to Pandora. Your final destination, GUARANTEED!"''
-->-- Billboards in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands|1}}''

...Until, of course, we zoom out to see it playing on a flickering TV in the middle of a war zone, displayed on a rotting billboard in a GhostCity, or being beamed into the minds of some [[CityNoir grim]] {{Dystopia}}'s residents. The ad will (almost) always be for the MegaCorp that caused the whole mess in the first place, especially if it's a CyberPunk work.

Subtrope of IronicJuxtaposition. As you see above, it's a definite TruthInTelevision. For examples from Website/ThisVeryWiki, see JustForFun/AdOfWin and DarthWiki/AdOfLose. If the product being advertised is a medication with a long list of side-effects, that's SideEffectsInclude. See ArtStyleDissonance, where it is the aesthetic and look of a work that clashes with the tone rather than an advertisement.

* ''ComicBook/RedRobin'': When Tim returns to Gotham he stands in front of a cheery ad with a smiling family declaring Gotham a great place to live right before diving into the graffiti covered streets to deal with a mugger.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Series/PenniesFromHeaven'' is all about this trope, starring Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters, in a comedy about how during the Depression, movies just portrayed everyone as rich, happy-- and DANCING.
* The publicity ad for Shell Beach in ''Film/DarkCity.'' It is one of the few happy and bright images in the entire movie, where the city is dark and run down. It gets truly dissonant because while the main character and his uncle remember growing up and living there, no one knows how to get there. Turns out [[spoiler: the [[RealityWarper reality warping]] aliens have implanted FakeMemories of the place in everyone, ''it never existed!'']]
* ''Film/{{Brazil}}'': Advertisements for things like secure cruise lines ("A panic-free atmosphere!") and things to buy are all over the place, plus standard "anti-espionage" posters ("loose lips sink ships") on the offices. All of which are little more than literal window dressing to try to cover the colossally screwed-up, barely-functioning world the characters live in (one scene shows a road with an endless line of billboards on each side, which prevent anybody on the vehicles from seeing an endless arid wasteland lying beyond).

* ''Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries''. While traveling by train into Chasm City, the residents grimly ignore a holographic tourist advertisement that plays around them depicting the [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen wonders of their city before it was devastated by the Melding Plague]]. Apparently they don't have any way of turning the advertisement off, so they just put up with it.

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "The Armageddon Factor" opens with a PatrioticFervor speech between young lovers that turns out to be a soap opera being shown on a war ravaged world.
* ''Series/AufWiedersehenPet'' featured this in its first title sequence with one of the characters walking towards the dole office in front of Saatchi & Saatchi's famous 'Labour isn't working' poster.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'': The episode "And Now For A Word" includes an in-universe [[MutantDraftBoard [=PsiCorps=]]] commercial depicting the organization as friendly helpful people... hardly the sort to engage in some of the unpleasant business they've gotten up to in many other episodes.

[[folder:Tabletop RPG]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' adventure ''Double Exposure''. One illustration had a billboard for Project Hope, with a happy family and the words "The Bravest Future". Under the billboard some Project Hope goons are giving a man a bloody beating.

* The various posters in ''VideoGame/BioShock1''. The special edition of ''VideoGame/BioShock2'' even comes with some print outs of them [[spoiler: with hidden messages printed in UV ink on the front]].
* ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'', especially in the areas added by ''Secret Armory of General Knoxx'' DLC has optimistic, 20's style billboards advertising settlement on Pandora, [[DeathWorld a planet full of aggressive wildlife and homicidal bandits]].
* ''VideoGame/EndlessSpace2'' - The United Empire faction's intro video features a cheery propaganda montage hailing the glory of the Empire, which ends in a still that pans out to reveal it's actually a billboard on the real, highly polluted, slum-covered, United Empire homeworld.

* ''VideoGame/RogueTrooper: Quartz Zone Massacre'' - The opening scene is a Nort propaganda video boasting about how much the Southers have been beaten. At the end of the scene, the camera pans out to show the TV is lying in the middle of a battlefield in which the Norts were creamed.
* The [[https://youtu.be/BHqZa8X7XZs story trailer]] for the ''[[{{VideoGame/Stellaris}} Stellaris: Megacorp]]'' expansion pack shows slick, shiny, upbeat corporate advertising for the titular MegaCorp contrasted with what looks like a gritty, impoverished, authoritarian dystopia.

* Somewhere in ''Webcomic/TheEnds'', which happens in good part in the eponymous hellhole city, there is billboard advertising the legendary city of Avalon, that people are looking for. It's a stark contrast. [[spoiler:The Ends is actually the ruins of Avalon.]]

* In a video explaining how Google [=AdSense=] works, the [=YouTuber=] Appabend invokes this trope by mentioning how he once saw an ad for ''Series/{{Iron Fist|2017}}'' on Netflix right before a video criticising ''Iron Fist'' for Orientalism.

[[folder:Western Animation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' does this with holographic billboards on Earth, and uses them to detail the movie's backstory. Pixar then took it even further by giving Buy n Large its own functional website, which expands on said backstory and is packed with black humor/social commentary worthy of ''Website/TheOnion''.

[[/folder]]

* Norwegian skeptic blogger Gunnar Tjomlid once noted thst he got ads for the diet supplement Chili Forte on his blog despite it being the exact kind of product he'd be inclined to debunk.[[note]]The ads were provided by a third party, so he had no control over them.[[/note]] Indeed, he showed off a screenshot of these Chili Forte ads in a blog post arguing that Chili Forte is a scam.

Subtrope of IronicJuxtaposition. As you see above, it's a definite TruthInTelevision. For examples from Wiki/ThisVeryWiki, see JustForFun/AdOfWin and DarthWiki/AdOfLose. If the product being advertised is a medication with a long list of side-effects, that's SideEffectsInclude. See ArtStyleDissonance, where it is the aesthetic and look of a work that clashes with the tone rather than an advertisement.

* This was the trailer for ''Film/ResidentEvilExtinction''.

...Until, of course, we pan out to see it playing on a flickering TV in the middle of a war zone, displayed on a rotting billboard in a GhostCity, or being beamed into the minds of some [[CityNoir grim]] {{Dystopia}}'s residents.

The ad will (almost) always be for the MegaCorp that caused the whole mess in the first place, especially if this is a CyberPunk work.

* In a video explaining how Google [=AdSense=] works, the [=YouTuber=] Appabend invokes this trope by mentioning how he once saw an ad for ''Series/IronFist'' on Netflix right before a video criticising ''Iron Fist'' for Orientalism.

%%Image: standing in line for free bread

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Tabletop RPG ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'', especially in the areas added by ''Secret Armory of General Knoxx'' DLC has optimistic, 20's style billboards advertising settlement on [[DeathWorld Pandora]].

* ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' does this with holographic billboards on Earth, and uses them to detail the movie's backstory. Pixar then took it UpToEleven by giving Buy n Large its own functional website, which expands on said backstory and is packed with black humor/social commentary worthy of ''Website/TheOnion''.

* In a video explaining how Google AdSense works, the [=YouTuber=] Appabend invokes this trope by mentioning how he once saw an ad for ''Series/IronFist'' on Netflix right before a video criticising ''Iron Fist'' for Orientalism.

* Pretty much any slum, urban war zone, or disaster area with billboards will fall into this trope.

* Often happens online because of the keyword-based nature of advertising bots. Atheism boards are overrun by religious banner ads, discussions on forums devoted to people who do not drive cars are plastered with car insurance advertisements, news stories about disasters in a place will be covered by tourism ads urging people to visit the place, and so on.
** There's at least one photo out there of an article on a baby dying in a house fire...with an ad reading Burn Baby Burn.

* While watching TV, the ads during the commercial breaks may contrast the show you're actually watching. Heck, some commercial breaks may run ads that contrast ''each other'' (like, say, if a fast food commercial was followed by a weight loss commercial).

Subtrope of IronicJuxtaposition. As you see above, it's a definite TruthInTelevision. For examples from Wiki/ThisVeryWiki, see JustForFun/AdOfWin and DarthWiki/AdOfLose. If the product being advertised is a medication with a long list of side-effects, that's SideEffectsInclude.