History Main / CoversAlwaysLie

* ''Manga/{{Evangelion 303}}'': Chapter [[spoiler:13]]'s title is [[spoiler:The Death of Asuka Langley Sohryu]]. No, it does not come to pass.
** It's more of a case of ExactWords. [[spoiler: She gets engaged to Shinji, so her ''name'' dies and is replaced with his.]]
* The header for ''Fanfic/KnowledgeIsPower'' says "Humour/Romance", but there's not much of either.
* The cover for a [[WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH Secret of NIMH]] fanfic, ''Secret of the Stone'', depicts Mrs. Brisby wearing her iconic amulet. [[spoiler:Not only does she never use the amulet in the story, she is not even the main character.]]

* Being an InteractiveComic, there's no way that the author of ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'' would be able to perfectly predict the direction the story would take from the get-go. Regardless, the events taking place on the [[http://www.bogleech.com/awfulhospital/poster.png cover page]] are vastly different from the actual story, the most notable difference being the presence of a character who wouldn't be met until over '''600 pages''' in.

''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]].

* Two examples involving YA fantasy heroines:
** The title character of ''Literature/EllaEnchanted'' is described as having black hair, yet the covers of almost every edition give her medium or light brown hair instead, which Gail Carson Levine [[https://gailcarsonlevine.com/blog/2010/08/04/cover-musings/ has complained about.]]
** In Robin McKinley's ''Literature/BeautyARetellingOfBeautyAndTheBeast'', Beauty's hair is described at first as "neither blonde nor brown," and brightens into "a light coppery red" as she matures. The cover of the 1993 edition portrays her with dark brown hair instead. Since it also has her wearing a yellow dress, it seems likely that the artist was trying to evoke Disney's [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast Belle]].

* Things like recipe books and food packaging has plenty of examples of this, featuring pictures of food made by professionals, presented to be as photogenic and appetizing as possible. Some food examples [[http://shopping.yahoo.com/news/photos-from-food-ads-vs--the-real-thing.html here.]]

* The video thumbnail for ''WebVideo/{{Smosh}} Games Alliance'''s "SMOSH SQUAD TAKES OVER QUIPLASH LIVE (SGA Live)" shows Sohinki and Mari, but the two didn't make an appearance in the episode at all. The comments were saying how the cover was misleading.
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* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' parodies this when Mordecai and Rigby plug in an 8-bit game and compare it (favorably) to the cover illustration.

-->-- TheStinger, ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick: Start of Darkness''

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' book ''StartOfDarkness'' ends with the Monster In The Dark [[LampshadeHanging complaining that the picture on the front of the book didn't actually happen like that]]. Ironically it's not all that inaccurate, though; it just amalgamates different parts of the story into one scene for a general overview.
** In the Order of the Stick board game, one of the cards is [[CoverDrop "Dragon from the front of the box."]]

* [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20040912.html This]] strip of ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' refers to the trope, although the cover of the book it'll be in ([[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/archive.html #6]]) remains to be seen.

** ''[[HarmfulToMinors "Billy, have you decided what game you want?"]]''

* The cover art for ''Fanfic/TealovesSteamyAdventure'' was deliberately made to be ''sort of'' accurate, but in a misleading way. For instance, a cave troll features in the story, while the cover includes [[{{Homestuck}} Nepeta]], who is a troll girl who lives in a cave, but otherwise has absolutely nothing to do with the story. Similarly, the cover of the "sequel", ''Fanfic/DiamondAndSilversExcellentAdventure'' contains nothing that actually appears in the story other than the two eponymous protagonists and implications of time travel.

* The VHS release of ''[[Wrestling/{{WCW}} Slamboree 2000]]'' sports a big picture of Wrestling/JeffJarrett and Wrestling/{{D|iamondDallasPaige}}DP. Fair enough. Strangely absent is the most important man on the show, Dave Arquette.

* Wrestling posters and DVD covers will often feature one of their Divas (and one of the {{Faux Action Girl}}s at that) holding a prop that ''symbolically'' has something to do with the theme of the show, but is otherwise irrelevant; the Diva in question is often [[BillingDisplacement barely in the show, if at all]]. Even if a male wrestler's image is used, he might be shown wearing a silly themed costume (suggesting that the show will be laugh-a-minute) or depicted with inappropriate iconography. Famously, the poster for ''No Mercy'' in October 2007 showed Wrestling/RandyOrton holding a white dove on the cover, implying that he was about to [[HeelFaceTurn turn face]]. (He didn't.) If he ''had'' turned face, that would have been the creepiest foreshadowing ever. Yeah, he was holding a dove, but his ''face!''

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

[[folder:Web Video]]
* ''WebVideo/HowToBasic''. And how.
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Dishonest as the practice may be, you gotta admit that it is kinda funny, too.

* 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 DoctorDoom (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.

A related subtrope is the practice of creating the cover ''first'', and writing the story based on that. This was common practice for comic books, especially at DC, during TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks under editor Julius Schwartz, and was responsible for some of the weirdest stories of the time. However, it would sometimes result in a story that went off in a totally different direction and disposed of the cover situation in a panel or two. The website Website/{{Superdickery}} features many strange, silly and inane covers [[SuperDickery of this kind]].

* Deliberately used by Justin Pierce for the last published chapter of ''Killroy And Tina''. The chapter is about Brandon gaining a magic glove that grants him SuperSpeed, but eventually having to relinquish it. [[http://www.graphicsmash.com/comics/killroyandtina.php?view=archive&chapter=13177&mpe=0 The cover image]] featured Brandon with gorilla arms, panicking over the fact that prom was scheduled to start in an hour. Pierce said that he went with a completely non-indicative [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]]-homage because his original cover idea gave away ''too much'' of the plot.

* The fan fiction ''Fanfic/MobileFighterEvangelion'' was inspired by this occurrence: WordOfGod is that the author, when he was a kid, saw a poster of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' and assumed things [[HotBlooded about]] [[GenkiGirl the]] [[{{Determinator}} Children]] (and the series as a whole) [[DisfunctionJunction that was]] ''[[DarkerAndEdgier way]]'' [[{{Deconstruction}} different from the real thing]]. He then decided to endeavor to make a story ''worthy'' of the poster.

Dishonest as the practice may be, you gotta admit that it is kinda funny, too.

** Referencing that strip, the artist ''intentionally'' invokes this trope for the actual cover for that book. It features numerous characters who never met in-story, all crammed together, [[InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja and a ninja]], watching while Kevyn does something science-y.

* {{Website/Cracked}} has a list of [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18542_15-grossly-misleading-movie-posters.html 15 Grossly Misleading Movie Posters]].

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