History Main / CoversAlwaysLie

This has occasionally gotten {{lampshade h|anging}}ung on it, as evidenced [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Robin64.jpg here]], [[https://thedailysuperman.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/daily-planet-cover-week-this-scene-probably-doesnt-appear-in-this-issue here]] and [[http://www.thewotch.com/index.php?arcid=31 here]].

** CB2 Pantheons shows a technological Thor who is never mentioned in the book.
** DB2 Phase World shows a giant monster attacking Centre. The creature was never mentioned nor statted.
** WB10 Juicer Uprising makes it seem like there is a way to shoot a hole through helmets without destroying them.
** WB20 Canada shows the Tundra Rangers being part of the Coalition States, the book doesn't describe them working together.

* {{Downplayed|Trope}} with the cover of the Franchise/{{Danganronpa}} CompilationRerelease ''Danganronpa Decadence.'' The selection of characters on the box art isn't fully reflective of their actual importance within the series, including not just the protagonists and major antagonists, but several supporting characters who don't really contribute enough to the plot to merit their inclusion. The most egregious example is probably [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Hifumi]], who gets the [[FloatingHeadSyndrome largest floating head]] on the cover despite [[spoiler: not even making it to the halfway point of the first game]] and not being relevant at all in the following games.

* ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'''s book covers ([[http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1593074441/ref=sib_dp_pop_fc?ie=UTF8&p=S001 1]], [[http://web.archive.org/web/20060526105834/http://www.penny-arcade.com/docs/gabe/pabook2.jpg 2]], [[http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/400/13/13979.jpg 3]]) all feature the two main characters, but that's about it. On the other hand, this may as good a way as any to represent [[GagSeries the comic]].

* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick's "Top 10 'Hottest' Animated Guys" bumper art shows her surrounded by WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}, [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Hades]], [[Franchise/XMen Nightcrawler]] and [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast the Beast]], all dressed as ChippendalesDancers. While those are all characters ''she'' admits to liking, the actual list was constructed from a poll of her female viewers, and all but one of those characters ([[spoiler:the Beast]]) failed to place.

** This was inspired by the Music/ButtholeSurfers's ''Locust Abortion Technician''. An album that looks like [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/ButtholeSurfersLocustAbortionTechnician.jpg this]] and sounds like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3E_2A1fEoM this]].

* Sven's book in ''Will Write for Chocolate'' is about [[http://inkygirl.com/wwfc/2006/6/14/eva-sympathizes.html an all-male exploratory mission in outer space]], but the book cover features [[http://inkygirl.com/wwfc/2006/7/12/svens-book-signing.html a slinky blonde in a leopard-skin bikini]].

* The homepage of ''Webcomic/CrystalHeroes'' is [[https://www.crystalheroescomic.com/page-1/ the first page of the comic]], a parody of fantasy comics [[OpeningMonologue beginning with exposition pages]], and gives the impression of a typical medieval fantasy setting before revealing it was actually a speech from [[https://www.crystalheroescomic.com/page-2/ an evangelist on a modern college campus]].

* The cover and poster art for ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'' depicts Jasper wearing a blue hoodie. Jasper actually spends most of the show wearing Agnes's [[LittleDeadRidingHood ''red'' hoodie]].

* The ''Theatre/BeMoreChill'' Broadway album booklet shows the entire cast onstage during "Halloween," including Michael in his costume. Michael is not present in that number; the audience doesn't even know he's at the party until two scenes later. The costume was a disguise to ''sneak into'' the party.

->'''Monster in the Darkness:''' Wait-- The scene on the cover didn't actually happen that way.\\

Don't judge a book by its cover - no, [[StealthPun literally]]. Nor a video, a comic, or even a record. The cover is an essential part of the marketing plan. As is common in [[AdvertisingTropes marketing]], it can be an entirely inaccurate representation. It's not just the artwork that's misleading, either. The Blurb on the back may be even more disconnected from the story.

* The fanfiction [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7290687/1/ Pataki Magi Helga Magica]] (a crossover between [[WesternAnimation/HeyArnold Hey! Arnold]] and [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]), judging by the title name and the cover art, many readers would expect Helga [[ActionGirl to become an awesome Puella Magi]] [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower who fights for love and justice]]. [[spoiler:Not only she never become an active Puella Magi at all, she eventually make a wish to Kyubey so that [[RetGone she would never exist in that world]] to undo all the bad things that had already happened.]]
* The cover art for a crossover fanfiction [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7981588/1/Wishes-of-a-Different-Sort Wishes Of A Different Sort]] features [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Homura Akemi]] and [[Anime/DragonBallZ Freeza]]. While Homura is the main protagonist of the story and Freeza plays important roles as a threatening villain, [[spoiler:[[TheDreaded Ultimate Kriemhild Gretchen]] is the true BigBad of the story, making Freeza [[EvilerThanThou pale in comparison]]. And guess what, Homura is not the one who seal Gretchen away.]]

* The promo art for the WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse fanfic ''Fanfic/SelaginellaLepidophylla'' has Rose Quartz hilariously carrying numerous tubs of ice cream and making a "cool" pun. But in context, this scene leads to one of the most heart wrenching scenes of the story so far.

* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' has a very deliberate example - the pre-intro scene of episode 31 suggests that the series WILL be adapting the Garlic Jr arc, a much maligned filler arc; the intro for the episode even uses scenes from said arc. [[spoiler: The majority of said episode focuses on Krillin and his girlfriend. Garlic Jr literally lasts less than a minute before being assimilated by Mr Popo]].

* ''[[WebAnimation/KlayWorld Klay World: Off the Table]]''. The DVD cover makes it look like one of those cheap, direct-to-video family movies. Although it IS cheap and direct-to-video, the language and violent (albeit cartoony) on-screen deaths proves that this ain't a kids flick. The writer/director lampshades this in one of the DVD commentaries.
* Lampshaded during [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ470zHEhDI this review]] for '' VideoGame/MasterOfMagic'' one of the reviews states "I knew it was a total flop, one could tell that just by looking at the box". Before the end of the video that same reviewer falls in love with the game.
* The autographed cast picture where everyone was in their costumes was the first spoiler for ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'', and taking the cue from ''WebVideo/{{Kickassia}}'' and ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights'', fans wondered how Doug was going to emote at all with a giant Film/JudgeDredd helmet covering half his face. In reality, he was only in the Dredd costume for ten minutes, so he was free to PuppyDogEyes[=/=]ManlyTears away the rest of the time.
* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick's "Top 10 'Hottest' Animated Guys" bumper art shows her surrounded by WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}, [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Hades]], [[Franchise/XMen Nightcrawler]] and [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast the Beast]], all dressed as ChippendalesDancers. While those are all characters ''she'' admits to liking, the actual list was constructed from a poll of her female viewers, and all but one of those characters ([[spoiler:the Beast]]) failed to place.
* Lockstin & Gnoggin's videos about Franchise/{{Pokemon}} types feature detailed analysis of all the Pokémon or the moves of that type, explaining why they are like that. The thumbnails for those videos suggest a completely different kind of video, as they usually feature a bunch of Pokémon of that type with "NOT <type>?" over them, suggesting that the videos talk about how some Pokémon don't fit at all their typings.

* ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'', mirroring the earlier ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', was spun off in [[ComicBookAdaptation its own comic book series]]. While the covers of both titles rarely showed scenes or concepts from the stories inside, the first Pinky and the Brain cover was notable for following the guidelines at the top of this page explicitly, with the Brain pronouncing 'This is the way to make it big in the comic business!'. The cover featured Pinky, the Brain, superheroine costumes, and a box of Kleenex. And it followed the one-inch-from-centre rule.

* In a Franchise/{{Superman}} comic where the cover says Lobo will make a one-page cameo, Lobo [[MediumAwareness responds by swearing at the fact he only gets one page]].
* As seen on the page image for WolverinePublicity, there existed an alternate cover for an ''Literature/AnitaBlake'' comic Marvel was putting out at the time featuring Wolverine and Anita, with a small caption reading "Wolverine does not actually appear in this issue".

* Parodied in ''Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun''. Engineering professor Jay Omega once wrote a novel about sunspots wrecking electronics and reducing the intelligence of women worldwide; the novel is well-written hard ScienceFiction and not the least bit misogynistic. Unfortunately, the third-rate publishing house saddles it with a Creator/FrankFrazetta-style lustful cover, featuring a FurBikini-clad barbarian woman [[LegCling clinging to the leg]] of a muscle-bound scientist with a clipboard and computer, as well as the title ''Bimbos of the Death Sun''. As a result, people assume both book and author are much more lurid than they really are, and Jay does his best to make sure as few people as possible know he wrote it.
** For extra recursion points, the ''actual'' ''Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun'' was given a [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bimbos_of_the_death_sun_1888.jpg comparable cover;]] the novel itself is a fairly tame (if funny) murder-mystery set at a sci-fi convention.

* Ernie Kovacs parodied this trope with a series of "more sex and violence" book covers, showing ''Little Women'' as ladies of ill repute, ''Peter Rabbit'' as a gangster, and a Webster's unabridged dictionary with a picture of a silhouette of a lady behind a window blind, with blurbs all over the cover such as "Unexpurgated!", "Four Letter Words!", and "Nothing Left Out!".

For cover illustrations that whiten dark-skinned characters, see RaceLift. For in-book illustrations, see UnreliableIllustrator. For magazines that sometimes put a bit of skin on their cover even though the interior is about gaming, sports, or whatever, see FanserviceCover. For foreign covers being edgier than the actual content, see AmericanKirbyIsHardcore.

For cover illustrations that whiten dark-skinned characters, see RaceLift. For in-book illustrations, see UnreliableIllustrator. For magazines that sometimes put a bit of skin on their cover even though the interior is about gaming, sports, or whatever, see FanserviceCover.

* Parodied in ''Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun''. Engineering professor Jay Omega once wrote a novel about sunspots wrecking electronics and reducing the intelligence of women worldwide; the novel is well-written hard ScienceFiction and not the least bit misogynistic. Unfortunately, the third-rate publishing house saddles it with a Creator/FrankFrazetta-style ContemptibleCover, featuring a FurBikini-clad barbarian woman [[LegCling clinging to the leg]] of a muscle-bound scientist with a clipboard and computer, as well as the title ''Bimbos of the Death Sun''. As a result, people assume both book and author are much more lurid than they really are, and Jay does his best to make sure as few people as possible know he wrote it.

Many of these overlap with SexyPackaging and ContemptibleCover, and often feature LadyNotAppearingInThisGame or {{Advertised Extra}}s. Compare with NeverTrustATrailer, WolverinePublicity, BaitAndSwitchCredits, SuperDickery, and NeverTrustATitle.

* Parodied in ''Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun''. Engineering professor Jay Omega once wrote a novel about sunspots wrecking electronics and reducing the intelligence of women worldwide; the novel is well-written [[SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness Hard Sci-Fi]] and not the least bit misogynistic. Unfortunately, the third-rate publishing house saddles it with a Creator/FrankFrazetta-style ContemptibleCover, featuring a FurBikini-clad barbarian woman [[LegCling clinging to the leg]] of a muscle-bound scientist with a clipboard and computer, as well as the title ''Bimbos of the Death Sun''. As a result, people assume both book and author are much more lurid than they really are, and Jay does his best to make sure as few people as possible know he wrote it.

* Parodied in ''Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun''. Engineering professor Jay Omega once wrote a novel about sunspots wrecking electronics and reducing the intelligence of women worldwide; the novel is well-written [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness Hard Sci-Fi]] and not the least bit misogynistic. Unfortunately, the third-rate publishing house saddles it with a Creator/FrankFrazetta-style ContemptibleCover, featuring a FurBikini-clad barbarian woman [[LegCling clinging to the leg]] of a muscle-bound scientist with a clipboard and computer, as well as the title ''Bimbos of the Death Sun''. As a result, people assume both book and author are much more lurid than they really are, and Jay does his best to make sure as few people as possible know he wrote it.

* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': Several of the [[BreatherEpisode more lighthearted chapters]] of what is normally a MagicalGirlGenreDeconstruction feature cover art that places its characters in an AlternateUniverse or another genre entirely, and only thematically relate to the contents of the chapter. For example, the cover page for [[https://www.sleeplessdomain.com/comic/chapter-8-page-4 Chapter 8]] depicts the two main characters as [[ComicBooks comic-book]] superheroes, while [[https://www.sleeplessdomain.com/comic/chapter-17-page-1 Chapter 17]] shows the main ensemble in a monochrome private eye's office and attire out of a FilmNoir set. The author's note on the cover of [[https://www.sleeplessdomain.com/comic/chapter-7-page-5 Chapter 7]] lampshades this:

* ''Webcomic/DomainTnemrot'''s [[http://www.tnemrot.com/?p=57 chapter two cover]] is much LighterAndSofter than the contents.

* ''Webcomic/TheWotch'' lampshades the practice in [[http://www.thewotch.com/?epDate=2006-11-28 this cover]].

* [[http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=557 This]] ''Webcomic/SequentialArt'' strip.

* Sven's book in ''Will Write for Chocolate'' is about [[http://inkygirl.com/wwfc/2006/6/14/eva-sympathizes.html an all-male exploratory mission in outer space]], but the book cover features [[http://inkygirl.com/wwfc/2006/7/12/svens-book-signing.html a slinky blond in a leopard-skin bikini]].

Many of these overlap with SexyPackaging and ContemptibleCover, and often feature LadyNotAppearingInThisGame or {{Advertised Extra}}s. Compare with NeverTrustATrailer, WolverinePublicity, BaitAndSwitchCredits, SuperDickery, NeverTrustATitle and enjoy [[http://io9.com/5409579/cheesiest-book-covers/ this i09 gallery]].

* Wrestling/KurtAngle was featured on the poster for [[Creator/ImpactWrestling TNA]]'s ''Victory Road'' PPV in 2011... only to then not have a match, or a single second of screen time, on the show.

* Wrestling/KurtAngle was featured on the poster for [[Creator/ImpactWrestling TNA]]'s ''Victory Road'' PPV in 2011... only to then not have a single second of screen time on the show.

[[quoteright:256:[[VideoGame/{{Phalanx}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phalanx911111.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:256:The rootin'-tootin' banjo-pickin' high-flyin' cosmic adventure! [[ShootEmUp Except not.]]]]

In non-graphic literature, it is not uncommon for a female character to be portrayed in a {{Stripperiffic}} outfit when they would wear nothing of the sort in the story. Also, virtually any Speculative Fiction book will have either a rocket or an alien of some sort on the cover, and [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons dragons are commonly used]] on Fantasy, HighFantasy and SwordAndSorcery books, even if there is no dragon in the story at all. (Creator/FrankFrazetta and Creator/BorisVallejo are particularly noteworthy as artists whose paintings make great book covers, but only occasionally actually relate to the contents of the books.)

Many of these overlap with SexyPackaging and ContemptibleCover, and often feature LadyNotAppearingInThisGame. Compare with NeverTrustATrailer, WolverinePublicity, BaitAndSwitchCredits, SuperDickery, NeverTrustATitle and enjoy [[http://io9.com/5409579/cheesiest-book-covers/ this i09 gallery]].

* ''TabletopGame/CriticalRoleTaldoreiCampaginSetting'': The cover art for the book shows the heroes of ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' doing battle with a massive green dragon, with the the Gunslinger Percy right in the foreground. Not only is this particular battle not described anywhere in the book, but the book also doesn't include statistics for dragons or the Gunslinger class. You'll need to get a Monster Manual for dragon statistics and then go the GM's Guild website to see the gunslinger class that Percy represents.

* On ''Film/{{Beetlejuice''}} movie's poster, clothes worn by four of the main characters (Adam and Barbara Maitland, Betelgueuse, and Lydia Deetz) aren't those they wear during most of the film, but during the climax only: [[spoiler:the Maitlands wear their wedding clothes because those are personal effects that have been used in order to summon them to perform a séance, while Beetlejuice's striped suit and Lydia's red dress they only wear during the botched wedding which happens just after the séance (ItMakesSenseInCOntext)]]. Beetlejuice's striped suit became his IconicOutfit in adaptations of the film. Also, due to the movie being a ghost story, and to how common the JacobMarleyApparel trope is[[note]]it is mostly played straight during the actual movie[[/note]], showing the two main characters dressed in their wedding clothes implies to the audience they died during their wedding ceremony. In the movie's context, they're already married when they die.

* Played with in the case of ''Álgebra'' by Cuban mathematician Aurelio Baldor, which is by far the most famous and widely used textbook used in Latin America. The [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Baldor.jpg cover]] depicts Al-Juarismi, a Persian mathematician who lived on the 8th Century. However, as the book is used mainly in high schools, a common misconception regarding the book is that ''the dude wearing the turban is Baldor''. This is further exacerbated by the way the book is referred to, which is ''"Álgebra de Baldor"'' ("Baldor's Algebra"), the author's last name sounding Arabic in the first place, and by its famous cover art, so it's rather easy to make the mistake.

* In a Franchise/{{Superman}} comic where the cover says Lobo will make a one page cameo, Lobo [[MediumAwareness responds by swearing at the fact he only gets one page]].

* This is played for laughs on the cover of the ''Impossible Man'' one-shot comic book, where the title character is sunning himself on a beach surrounded by practically every major Marvel hero buried up to their necks in the sand, with Impy making a threat to Doctor Doom (who's behind him) that implies he beat them up and did that because they were blocking his sun. There's nothing like this inside he comic, but given the humor-themed stories that are, it was clearly meant as a joke.

* ''[[Music/{{Squeeze1973}} Squeeze]]'' is announced as a Music/VelvetUnderground album on the cover, but is actually more a solo album by band member Doug Yule. Today it has been written out of canon and is unavailable since the 1980s.

* Website/YouTube allows you to upload a photo of just about whatever you want if you decide not to use a still from the video for its thumbnail. This has extremely predictable results.