History Main / MisaimedMerchandising

** The VHS tapes for the {{Bowdlerised}} Creator/FoxKids edit of ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'' included promotions for ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' and the uncut version of ''Manga/OutlawStar'', both very much completely inappropriate for kids. And no, the ''Bebop'' trailer was not censored in any way, and was the exact same trailer used for Bandai's more adult oriented releases, complete with blood, smoking, and fanservice.

* Bizarrely, Creator/FoxKids attempted to take ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'', which is aimed at a unisex teenage audience, and edited it to be for 6-11 year old boys. This not only involved censoring violent content, but even removing entire episodes and scenes that leaned too heavy into {{shojo}} tropes or that the young target audience would find boring. Due to bad ratings this showing was cancelled after only ten episodes aired. One wonders why they bothered to show it at all. ("Keeping the rights away from Toonami" is the most popular theory).

* Bizarrely, Creator/FoxKids attempted to take ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'', which is aimed at a unisex teenage audience, and edited it to be for 6-11 year old boys. This not only involved censoring violent content, but even removing entire episodes and scenes that leaned too heavy into {{shojo}} tropes or that the young target audience would find boring. Due to bad ratings this showing was cancelled after only eight episodes aired. One wonders why they bothered to show it at all. ("Keeping the rights away from Toonami" is the most popular theory).

** The VHS tapes for the {{Bowlderized}} Creator/FoxKids edit of ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'' included promotions for ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' and the uncut version of ''Manga/OutlawStar'', both very much completely inappropriate for kids.

* Creator/VizMedia included an ad for the ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'' movie ''Big Trouble in Nekonron China'' on some of their ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' VHS tapes. The risque jokes in that movie already makes this a somewhat questionable choice, but the series it's based on which it assumes familiarity with, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids while aimed at kids]] [[ValuesDissonance in Japan]], would especially raise a few eyebrows from American parents if little Pokémon-loving Timmy wanted to watch it, due to all the frontal nudity in it. Creator/ADVFilms including an ad for ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'' in their VHS of ''Anime/SonicTheHedgehogTheMovie'' also counts, but for violence and heavy thematic elements that [[CerebusSyndrome don't come into play until late in the series]]. And if you think that two decades later, companies would have learned not to advertise inappropriate anime before children's media, you would be mistaken, as the most egregious example of all happened in 2019. A trailer for the first ''Manga/MadeInAbyss'' compilation film was played before ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie2TheSecondPart'' and ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragonTheHiddenWorld''. The portion of the series covered by that film was rated PG-13, [[FromBadToWorse but it only gets worse from there]], as the series is infamous for its extremely graphic, disturbing, and very much R-rated {{Gorn}} and BodyHorror in spite of its cutesy art style, to the point where it's practically the poster child for WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids.

** The Arabic dub aired on Spacetoon, one of the most recognizable children's networks in the MENA region. While [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpAHm2_Snd4 it was edited for content]], the show is still ''not'' for kids -- being aimed at adults and containing some often dark and crude themes.

* There's already a bunch of ''Series/SquidGame'' merchandise, even though the whole message of the show is that capitalism makes us do horrible things to each other. It was also frequently one of the most popular user-made levels on ''VideoGame/{{Roblox}}'', which only made it ''more'' popular with children.

* Pixar partnered with Toyota to cross promote ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' and the Toyota Corolla Cross. The main character, Mei, is 13 years old- far too young to ''drive'' a car, much less ''afford'' one. Even if she was old enough to get a driver's license, she would most likely prefer an electric or hybrid car as opposed to the gas-powered Corolla Cross, as she's an environmentalist. Not to mention, the film itself is a PeriodPiece set in [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2002]], [[AnachronismStew predating the release of the Corolla Cross by 18 years]].

* In the early 2000s, someone at American Greetings got the wise idea of spinning off Grumpy Bear from the Franchise/CareBears into his own line of clothes. While the idea itself isn't wrong given Grumpy's popularity with the Care Bears fandom, the execution was off by several miles- American Greetings was for some reason convinced that Grumpy Bear's fans are ''goths'' and all the merchandise released under the line were tacky goth colored dark red and navy blue on black with gothic font peppered everywhere. This went as far as the downloadable wallpapers on the American Greetings website. And to keep the merch from falling into the hands of regular fans and to prevent MoralGuardians from coming after them, the spinoff was never advertised widely- which led to the misconception that the then-holder of the rights to the franchise, Play Along Toys, did not want two blue-colored bears and cancelled Grumpy in favor of Bedtime Bear. Thankfully, this was corrected by the mid-2000s, when the WesternAnimation/CareBearsAdventuresInCareALot reboot came around.

Is mostly the result of AnimationAgeGhetto.

* Ravenage Games' marketing of games published by it has been criticized by other indie developers for its "kiddy" marketing style, outdated wording/presentation, sloppy footage editing, or use of ShowDontTell that leaves viewers confused what the game/game mechanic is really about. Too bad that the games themselves tend to be well-received, which leaves one wonder how such low quality marketing even got the pass. For a couple examples:

* There's tons of merchandise for ''Series/{{Friends}}'' that is aimed at kids, mainly clothing, despite the show itself being aimed at a much older audience.

%%* While ''Series/TheMandalorian'' doesn't contain anything particularly objectionable, the themes and storylines are still too mature for the average five-year-old. That didn't stop Disney from including a KidAppealCharacter and plastering his likeness on anything they could get their hands on.

* Pixar partnered with Toyota to cross promote ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' and the Toyota Corolla Cross. The main character, Mei, is a staunch environmentalist and as such would likely drive an electric or at least a hybrid vehicle if she could. Instead the version they showed off was the purely gas powered one and this despite Toyota having their first all-electric model for the North American market set to launch shortly after the film debuted.

* There was a ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' HO train sold ([[http://www.collecttolkien.com/images/Other/Misc%20LOTR%20Train%20Set%20Hawthorne%20Village.jpg picture]]), which is only odd if you think about how the side with technology is the bad guys, and how long the heroes' journey on foot is.

* Coors Light cut a deal to sponsor ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', the 2012 prequel to ''Film/{{Alien}}''. Not only does Coors Light not appear anywhere in the film (the characters exclusively drink liquor), one character even suffers a horrific demise when an alien virus is dropped in his drink.

* ''Series/DoctorWho''[='=]s legendary "Dalekmania" in the '60s, which spawned a craze for all things Dalek -- in addition to the usual toys and OfficialCosplayGear, there were such wonders as "Dalek Death Ray Ice Lollies", fashion shoots for Vogue in which groovy '60s babes fondled Dalek eyestalks, Dalek novelty pop songs about partying with sexy Daleks and Dalek cuddly toys, all focusing on a race of ScaryDogmaticAliens based on particularly hysterical Nazis. This also spawned a whole line of toy guns said to be "[[IAmNotShazam Dr. Who's]] Anti-Dalek" weapons (when the Doctor [[BatmanGrabsAGun almost never uses guns]]). This whole trope was eventually deconstructed in the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' audio story "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho040Jubilee Jubilee]]", which postulates the kind of Britain which would market Dalek iconography to children as necessarily being a society with a ForeignCultureFetish for Dalek culture, becoming [[PuttingOnTheReich a Nazi-like empire fixated on conquering others and erasing everything different]].

* On the opposite end of the spectrum, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-6C-PiuuZI this]] commercial for an anime VHS subscription [[AnimationAgeGhetto really tries to play up the fact that anime is]] DarkerAndEdgier and that it "Ain't no ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''"... Except while there are a few gory anime shown, they also use clips of ''Anime/ProjectAKo'' and ''Anime/{{Slayers}}'', two comedies that run on cartoon slapstick. While Project A-Ko does at least have nudity, the TV series for ''Slayers'' has very little in the way of adult content aside from a few ACupAngst jokes and very infrequent mild bleeding. The commercial also features ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'', a perfectly family friendly show.

** [[https://twitter.com/StitchOoC/status/1713634370521584085 This advertisement]] for ''WesternAnimation/LiloandStitch2StitchHasAGlitch'' in ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'' features a cutout door hanger featuring Stitch, with the "do not disturb" side having Stitch say, "Don't Bother Me! I'm '''GLITCHING!'''" In the movie itself, Stitch's condition is actually meant to be ''tragic'', the door hanger might as well have him say, "Don't Bother Me! I'm '''[[spoiler:DYING]]!'''" Just as bad is the tagline on the top of the ad:

* In the 90's, there were plans for Creator/FoxKids to do a SaturdayMorningCartoon adaptation of Creator/RobLiefeld's ''Comicbook/{{Youngblood}}''. The franchise's claim to fame is that it's part of [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks the trend of]] DarkerAndEdgier, HotterAndSexier, BloodierAndGorier comics starring teams of violent {{Nineties Anti Hero}}es, which makes you wonder why someone would look at that and think "This would be GREAT as a kid's show!"

[[folder:In General]]
* For a strange time period in the late '80s/early '90s, everything and its mom and its dog had a tie-in breakfast cereal. (As ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'' snarked: "You've seen the movie. Now eat the cereal.") Back in '91 you may have seen this irritatingly catchy commercial for [[http://www.avclub.com/articles/box-of-robin-hood-prince-of-thieves-tiein-breakfas,26456/ this example]]:
-->"Now, ''[[Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves Prince of Thieves]]'' is an EXCITING CEREAL!!!"
** Not only that, but the pieces of that cereal are supposed to be shaped like arrows, but instead came out looking like... something else.
** "Franchise/JurassicPark Crunch" was Lucky Charms with dinosaur shapes.
** The tradition still goes on today, with things like popular children's shows and movie franchises. Most of them are the same cereal, only with the cereal bits and marshmallows molded into shapes that tie into the advertised theme.
** Funko lovingly pays tribute to this trend with its adult-oriented "[=FunkO's=]" line -- a basic multigrain cereal is themed by color and box art to a particular character, with a mini Pop! figure of them inside. Many of the characters are humorously inappropriate: [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]], [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]], [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]], Creator/ElviraMistressOfTheDark, [[Film/NationalLampoonsChristmasVacation Clark Griswold]], [[Film/JurassicPark Dr. Ian Malcolm]], [[WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty Snowball]], [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Knives Chau]], etc. However, plenty of the characters used for this promotion ''are'' kid-friendly, such as [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Mega Man]], [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers the Green Ranger]], WesternAnimation/HuckleberryHound, [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Marvin the Martian]] and [[WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} Tommy Pickles]] -- they just happen to (usually) have been around long enough that nostalgic adults appreciate them too.
* A variety of movies, TV shows, board games, video games, etc. have become the basis for themed casino slot machines since the TurnOfTheMillennium. Kids can't legally gamble, so most of the material being adapted was created for adults to begin with (though oftentimes it has a large PeripheryDemographic of kids) or is old enough that kids who grew up with it and remain in its fanbase as adults will enjoy such a game in the present. But with the source material still being marketed to kids, this reasoning doesn't make it any less strange to see slot machines based on such properties as ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones''. And even though it is intended for adults, seeing a ''Film/{{Sharknado}}'' slot machine is just plain weird. ''Franchise/StarWars'' and Creator/MarvelComics-based slot machines were popular for a while in TheNewTens; their sudden disappearance may have to do with Creator/{{Disney}}, which abstains from slot machines based on their in-house properties, now owning the rights to both franchises.
* The gourmet tea company The Republic of Tea produces tie-in ''teas'' -- limited-edition blends with flavors "inspired by" a film or novel, often [[TheFilmOfTheBook the film of a book]] -- via their catalog and website. Some of them make a certain amount of sense, such as when the work is set in a time and place where UsefulNotes/TeaAndTeaCulture is SeriousBusiness, but others... not so much. So far they've tackled:
** ''Literature/MemoirsOfAGeisha''
** ''Literature/EatPrayLove''
** ''Film/TheHelp''
** ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin2011''
** ''Literature/TheNo1LadiesDetectiveAgency'' (Three blends)
*** This one makes perfect sense. The preferences of Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi in varieties of tea (rooibos/redbush and black tea respectively) are invoked frequently, and many activities and discussions in the books involve one or more cups of tea.
** ''Literature/AnnaKarenina'' (2012 film)
** ''Series/DowntonAbbey'' (A ''line'' of teas by the time the show wrapped up, and they're still being made)
** ''The Hundred-Foot Journey''
** ''Series/TheCrown'' (Three blends)
** ''Series/TheMandalorian'' (Three blends!)
* [[http://www.geanimation.com/infoonly/ Great Eastern Entertainment]], a known merchandise licensee in the anime fandom, attempts to {{avert|ed}} this phenomenon by putting "Not for children under 15 years" warnings on their toys, accessories, and decor, in an attempt to show these things are meant to be collectible items for fans to present on their shelf and occasionally handle, not regular household objects to mess with (hence the weird hanging string loops on the plushes). While this is understandable for most properties, which are anime for teenagers or older, this phenomenon is rather played straight for the kid-targeted properties, notably ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''. Because there's nothing genuinely harmful for the 15-unders and it's nice to snuggle up with a cuddly plush of your favorite ''Sonic'' character, parents keep buying Great Eastern Entertainment merchandise for their children.
* In general, dog toys based on beloved licensed characters are very odd [[FridgeLogic when you really think about it]]--surely there are better ways to show your love for a character than having your dog chew on it. Some companies at least had the foresight of having the dog toys be in the likeness of villains from their properties.
* Piñatas based on licensed characters, considering the fact the whole point is to repeatedly beat the character with a stick and break it open! [[https://www.vice.com/en/article/8qkpgz/mexican-pinatas-let-you-beat-the-hell-out-of-satan The modern piñata, as introduced to the Americas via Spanish missionaries, was originally meant to represent Satan...]]
** Some modern pinatas avert this by having a design of the characters on the pinata instead, and strings at the bottom to pull to get the candy out instead of destroying it.
* Bizarrely, many have used the likeness of UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr in advertisements to sell everything from clothes, mattresses, strip clubs to even firearms. Putting aside the questionable commercialization of a revered civil rights activist, many conveniently overlook how King was a non-violent Christian socialist who openly denounced wasteful capitalism, materialism and the appropriation of his likeness to sell products. Some glaring examples include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUsz51Ep39U a 2018 Dodge SuperBowl commercial]] featuring a speech in which King ''denounced'' consumerism and a ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' event that allows players to watch King's speeches while dressed as the [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Xenomorph]] or [[WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty Rick Sanchez]].
* Disney Adventures magazine, despite being a magazine aimed at kids, has advertised several un-kid friendly movies and shows, including ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', ''Film/{{Alien}}'', ''Film/TheGoodSon'', ''Film/ForRicherOrPoorer'', and ''WesternAnimation/FatherOfThePride'', among others.
** Huggies and Pampers diapers feature various characters on them such as ''Series/SesameStreet'' (and Pampers was a sponsor for the show for several seasons) ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', Winnie The Pooh (doubles as a Main/VisualPun) etc. Seems odd when the object of the diaper is for the baby wearing them to pee/poop on them, and most babies do not care if a character is on their diaper. Huggies Pull-Ups and Pampers Easy-Ups training pants also have characters on them, but that makes more sense as children reaching toilet training age start to have a favorite TV/movie character.
[[/folder]]

* While ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' did get tons of toys, most of them were never sold in Toronto, which is where the film takes place, and a lot of people in Toronto actually want to buy the toys, since the movie is about their country.

** Gachapin has a Music/{{Vocaloid}}'' voice bank based on him, Gachapoid. Keep in mind Vocaloid is very expensive software that requires quite a bit of technical knowhow that even many adults struggle with, yet alone kids. And yes, Gachapoid ''was'' marketed to kids rather than nostalgic adults. Unsurprisingly, this combined with his cartoony, impractical voice caused him to be one of the least used Japanese Vocaloid banks.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePatrickStarShow'' takes an aim at Nickelodeon's tendency for inappropriate merchandising in "[[Recap/ThePatrickStarShowS2E1ThePatrickShowCashesInStarGames The Patrick Show Cashes In]]". Much of the Patrick Show's branded merchandise includes [[MyLittlePanzer overly dangerous]] products that kids should ''not'' have access to, such as a toy with a real battle axe, authentic DIY tattoo kits, and a uranium playset.

!!Other Marketing Oddities

[[folder:In General]]
* For a strange time period in the late '80s/early '90s, everything and its mom and its dog had a tie-in breakfast cereal. (As ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'' snarked: "You've seen the movie. Now eat the cereal.") Back in '91 you may have seen this irritatingly catchy commercial for [[http://www.avclub.com/articles/box-of-robin-hood-prince-of-thieves-tiein-breakfas,26456/ this example]]:
-->"Now, ''[[Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves Prince of Thieves]]'' is an EXCITING CEREAL!!!"
** Not only that, but the pieces of that cereal are supposed to be shaped like arrows, but instead came out looking like... something else.
** "Franchise/JurassicPark Crunch" was Lucky Charms with dinosaur shapes.
** The tradition still goes on today, with things like popular children's shows and movie franchises. Most of them are the same cereal, only with the cereal bits and marshmallows molded into shapes that tie into the advertised theme.
** Funko lovingly pays tribute to this trend with its adult-oriented "[=FunkO's=]" line -- a basic multigrain cereal is themed by color and box art to a particular character, with a mini Pop! figure of them inside. Many of the characters are humorously inappropriate: [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]], [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]], [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]], Creator/ElviraMistressOfTheDark, [[Film/NationalLampoonsChristmasVacation Clark Griswold]], [[Film/JurassicPark Dr. Ian Malcolm]], [[WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty Snowball]], [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Knives Chau]], etc. However, plenty of the characters used for this promotion ''are'' kid-friendly, such as [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Mega Man]], [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers the Green Ranger]], WesternAnimation/HuckleberryHound, [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Marvin the Martian]] and [[WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} Tommy Pickles]] -- they just happen to (usually) have been around long enough that nostalgic adults appreciate them too.
* A variety of movies, TV shows, board games, video games, etc. have become the basis for themed casino slot machines since the TurnOfTheMillennium. Kids can't legally gamble, so most of the material being adapted was created for adults to begin with (though oftentimes it has a large PeripheryDemographic of kids) or is old enough that kids who grew up with it and remain in its fanbase as adults will enjoy such a game in the present. But with the source material still being marketed to kids, this reasoning doesn't make it any less strange to see slot machines based on such properties as ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones''. And even though it is intended for adults, seeing a ''Film/{{Sharknado}}'' slot machine is just plain weird. ''Franchise/StarWars'' and Creator/MarvelComics-based slot machines were popular for a while in TheNewTens; their sudden disappearance may have to do with Creator/{{Disney}}, which abstains from slot machines based on their in-house properties, now owning the rights to both franchises.
* The gourmet tea company The Republic of Tea produces tie-in ''teas'' -- limited-edition blends with flavors "inspired by" a film or novel, often [[TheFilmOfTheBook the film of a book]] -- via their catalog and website. Some of them make a certain amount of sense, such as when the work is set in a time and place where UsefulNotes/TeaAndTeaCulture is SeriousBusiness, but others... not so much. So far they've tackled:
** ''Literature/MemoirsOfAGeisha''
** ''Literature/EatPrayLove''
** ''Film/TheHelp''
** ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin2011''
** ''Literature/TheNo1LadiesDetectiveAgency'' (Three blends)
*** This one makes perfect sense. The preferences of Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi in varieties of tea (rooibos/redbush and black tea respectively) are invoked frequently, and many activities and discussions in the books involve one or more cups of tea.
** ''Literature/AnnaKarenina'' (2012 film)
** ''Series/DowntonAbbey'' (A ''line'' of teas by the time the show wrapped up, and they're still being made)
** ''The Hundred-Foot Journey''
** ''Series/TheCrown'' (Three blends)
** ''Series/TheMandalorian'' (Three blends!)
* [[http://www.geanimation.com/infoonly/ Great Eastern Entertainment]], a known merchandise licensee in the anime fandom, attempts to {{avert|ed}} this phenomenon by putting "Not for children under 15 years" warnings on their toys, accessories, and decor, in an attempt to show these things are meant to be collectible items for fans to present on their shelf and occasionally handle, not regular household objects to mess with (hence the weird hanging string loops on the plushes). While this is understandable for most properties, which are anime for teenagers or older, this phenomenon is rather played straight for the kid-targeted properties, notably ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''. Because there's nothing genuinely harmful for the 15-unders and it's nice to snuggle up with a cuddly plush of your favorite ''Sonic'' character, parents keep buying Great Eastern Entertainment merchandise for their children.
* In general, dog toys based on beloved licensed characters are very odd [[FridgeLogic when you really think about it]]--surely there are better ways to show your love for a character than having your dog chew on it. Some companies at least had the foresight of having the dog toys be in the likeness of villains from their properties.
* Piñatas based on licensed characters, considering the fact the whole point is to repeatedly beat the character with a stick and break it open! [[https://www.vice.com/en/article/8qkpgz/mexican-pinatas-let-you-beat-the-hell-out-of-satan The modern piñata, as introduced to the Americas via Spanish missionaries, was originally meant to represent Satan...]]
** Some modern pinatas avert this by having a design of the characters on the pinata instead, and strings at the bottom to pull to get the candy out instead of destroying it.
* Bizarrely, many have used the likeness of UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr in advertisements to sell everything from clothes, mattresses, strip clubs to even firearms. Putting aside the questionable commercialization of a revered civil rights activist, many conveniently overlook how King was a non-violent Christian socialist who openly denounced wasteful capitalism, materialism and the appropriation of his likeness to sell products. Some glaring examples include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUsz51Ep39U a 2018 Dodge SuperBowl commercial]] featuring a speech in which King ''denounced'' consumerism and a ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' event that allows players to watch King's speeches while dressed as the [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Xenomorph]] or [[WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty Rick Sanchez]].
* Disney Adventures magazine, despite being a magazine aimed at kids, has advertised several un-kid friendly movies and shows, including ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', ''Film/{{Alien}}'', ''Film/TheGoodSon'', ''Film/ForRicherOrPoorer'', and ''WesternAnimation/FatherOfThePride'', among others.
** Huggies and Pampers diapers feature various characters on them such as ''Series/SesameStreet'' (and Pampers was a sponsor for the show for several seasons) ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', Winnie The Pooh (doubles as a Main/VisualPun) etc. Seems odd when the object of the diaper is for the baby wearing them to pee/poop on them, and most babies do not care if a character is on their diaper. Huggies Pull-Ups and Pampers Easy-Ups training pants also have characters on them, but that makes more sense as children reaching toilet training age start to have a favorite TV/movie character.
[[/folder]]

* ''Manga/LandOfTheLustrous'': In America, Kodansha has marketed the manga as "An elegant new action manga for fans of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''!" While the two share some superficial similarities, they belong to different genres and fall on completely opposite ends of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, so it's certainly not guaranteed that you'll enjoy one of them just because you enjoy the other. The backlash was significant enough that Kodansha removed that blurb from the covers.
* In Japan, they apparently sold [[https://animediet.net/commentary/100-fresh-squeezed-lilith-juice "LCL"-brand orange juice]] as a tie-in for the ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' [[Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion remake movies]]. For those who aren't ''Eva'' fans, LCL is a fluid humans can breathe in that fills the EVA cockpits [[spoiler: that's actually the harvested blood of an EldritchAbomination]]. And in TheMovie GrandFinale, [[spoiler:[[AssimilationPlot every human being on earth melts into LCL]]]]. It's almost like releasing ''Film/SoylentGreen'' brand tofu.[[note]]Oh wait, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_(meal_replacement) they have]], or at least something similar.[[/note]] Besides ''that'' issue, part of the Freudian overtones of the EVA designs also make it analogous to ''amniotic fluids''.
** There's been so much licensed Evangelion merchandise that it's been convincingly argued that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Qr9rztRw4 one can live entirely off of Evangelion merch]].[[note]]The only product Red Bard was unable to find evidence of was condoms, but [[NerdsAreVirgins it's not like anyone who would buy Evangelion condoms would have a use for them]].[[/note]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St-ppBwPzpQ Dietary supplements]] endorsed by ''Manga/CuteyHoney'', complete with animated fat Honey trying to lose weight.
* A ''Manga/{{Golgo 13}}'' kewpie. [[http://item.rakuten.co.jp/haco/r-4000070301/ A GODDAMN GOLGO 13 KEWPIE. A GOLGO, THE DEADLIEST ASSASSIN IN THE WORLD. KEWPIE.]] Not that the Manga/{{Devilman}} and Sirene kewpies are any less insane, but c'mon.
** There are ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]]'' and ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' [[http://www.strapya-world.com/categories/12_28_270_3299_4951.html kewpies]].
** There are also [[http://www.strapya-world.com/pic/2009/img10064286291.jpeg Alien vs. Predator]], [[http://www.strapya-world.com/pic/2009/img10064286298.jpeg Hannibal Lecter]], and [[Film/BeverlyHillsCop Axel]] [[http://www.strapya-world.com/pic/2009/img10064286300.jpeg Foley]] kewpies. {{Irony}}, [[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} thy name is]] Kewpie.
* In the 80s there was a ''Anime/MagicalPrincessMinkyMomo'' popcorn maker, shaped like a truck. The very same truck that [[spoiler:runs over and kills the main character halfway through the series]].
* For anyone who's seen ''Anime/GraveOfTheFireflies'', [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TrFJRdeJubA/SFDaeCOPfCI/AAAAAAAAAeY/3NFtR0_sOss/s400/sakuma-commemorative2.jpg this lovely commemorative tin]] ''has'' to seem at least a little disturbing. ItMakesSenseInContext, sort of--the brand of candy is featured prominently in the film, as a favorite of the two main characters. However, considering what happens to them, and that the lack of candy is one of the first signs of their impending death by starvation... It's mildly unsettling.
** That's not even the half of it. That little girl on the packaging? [[spoiler: Not only does she die, but her ashes are kept ''inside that tin of candy.'']]
* [[http://twitpic.com/5xd3fe This]] ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' wishboard that was put up at [[FanConvention Otakon 2011]], where convention-goers could write their wishes down on pieces of paper mounted on the board. Maybe not quite ''marketing'' per se, but a strange promotion in context nonetheless - whoever was behind displaying it either hasn't watched the show, else they'd know [[FateWorseThanDeath what making a contract with Kyubey entails]], or it's some ''very'' BlackComedy.
** Then there's [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2011-09-24/madoka-magica-kyoko-featured-on-guide-dog-poster this poster]] to raise awareness of training guide dogs featuring Kyoko Sakura. Even putting aside that they used a character that has absolutely nothing to do with service dogs ([[TheCape Sayaka]] would've been a better choice), the poster is to be displayed in elementary and middle schools. While it's a for a good cause, they probably be shouldn't be tying it into a series that is not kid-friendly.
** There were also guide dog posters featuring Rei Ayanami from the ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' films.
** [[ValuesDissonance It's Japan]]. Convenience stores like 7-11 and Lawson's regularly run cross-promotions with such series as ''Manga/CaseClosed'', ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' and, yes, ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]]''. "Family friendly" has a very different, but more entertaining, meaning there than it does in the West. In this case ''Madoka'' is a {{Seinen}} series, meaning it's aimed at adults even in Japan. And it's easy to see why -- [[spoiler:how many MagicalGirl series can you think of that feature ''[[OffWithHisHead decapitations]]?'']]
** Speaking of [[spoiler:decapitations]], there was a reversable plush of Charlotte that transforms from the cute form to the [[spoiler:evil form that ate Mami]], just like the WesternAnimation/{{Popples}}!
** They have ''Madoka Magica'' inner tubes. Including one shaped like Charlotte's mouth. Even if it didn't have the Charlotte one, it would still be strange because [=''Madoka''=]'s target audience wouldn't ''need'' an inner tube.
** [=MasterCard=] Japan released a ''Madoka'' [[http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=4284389&postcount=3393 credit card]]. Think about the ''Myth/{{Faust}}'' references in this show, and then [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the reputations]] [[FaustianBargain that big banks and credit card corporations]] have developed, especially since the 2008 sub-prime meltdown. This is also weapons-grade irony, folks.
** There are also Soul Gem bath bombs. They come in a random assortment like capsule toys. [[spoiler: When a Soul Gem breaks, a magical girl ''dies''. Do the math.]]
** Also Madoka-themed lingerie. The original series is devoid of {{Fanservice}}, so making underwear based on its characters is remarkably odd.
* You can buy a life-sized wearable replica of the Crimson Behilit from ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', just like Griffith's. Your very own ArtifactOfDoom that causes its bearer to inevitably make a DealWithTheDevil and damn all of their friends and loved ones to a horrific death (or worse), followed by eternal torture in Hell, for personal gain.
** They make cuddly plush toys of Griffith, one of the most loathsome villains in anime. Unsurprisingly, they're often seen on clearance at anime merch dealers. There are even stories of vendors giving them away for free at cons because they were that desperate to get rid of them. At least they make good chew toys for dogs...
** They've got a [[https://myfigurecollection.net/item/736569 pillow]] shaped like Dragon Slayer. Because [[PhraseCatcher a huge heap of raw iron]] sure sounds like a comfortable thing to sleep with.
* An Italian toy company made Barbie style dolls of [[Literature/{{Slayers}} Lina Inverse and Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune]], complete with doll hair.
* ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'':
** Sure, Vash the Stampede is a BadassPacifist, but [[https://myfigurecollection.net/item/667455 a water gun]] might be taking it a bit too far... It's a good thing [[{{BFG}} they didn't make a Wolfwood one]], imagine how much water that would waste.
** Funko [[https://www.gamestop.com/collectibles/funko/pop/products/funko-pop-and-tee-trigun-vash-with-donuts-4.8-in-vinyl-figure-and-unisex-t-shirt-gamestop-exclusive/20001485.html made a T-shirt of Vash happily eating donuts while sitting on a bench]]. Seems innocent and cute, right? Except this is based on a heart wrenching scene where [[StepfordSmiler Vash is desperately trying to feign happiness after the death of his best friend]], and he breaks down into tears immediately after.
* [[http://shop.primaniacs.com/ Primaniacs]] sells fragrances inspired by anime characters. Not a bad idea, and it certainly makes sense for some of the series featured like ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' and ''VisualNovel/CodeRealize''. But some of them kind of make you go "huh?". [[Webcomic/OnePunchMan Saitama]] doesn't really evoke pleasant smells.
** There were two ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' perfumes, themed after Eren for men and Mikasa for women. Creator/DanAndPhil impulse-bought the "Eren" one on their trip to Japan; [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBpoWONX3w4 it was apparently awful]] (relevant part starts at 10:24).
--> '''Dan:''' I love a good [[HumanoidAbomination Titan]] musk.
* Franchise/HelloKitty [[http://cgi.ebay.com/Sanrio-Hello-Kitty-Massager-Vibrator-Pink_W0QQitemZ360039770631QQcmdZViewItem Vibrator]]. It's supposed to be just an electronic massager; Sanrio discontinued the item when they found out about people discovering its potential for perversion. That doesn't stop the weirdness, though. Other oddities include Hello Kitty lingerie and one of Japan's more famous LoveHotels, which has a room with a ''Hello Kitty BDSM'' theme, hardcore enough to give the plush Kitty dominatrix in it ''barbed wire garter belts''.
** However, this is more a case of ValuesDissonance and an effect similar to the AnimationAgeGhetto, as the target market for Sanrio products is dramatically different between Japan and the rest of the world. In the US and Europe, Sanrio is marketed almost exclusively to children and early teens. By contrast, in Japan, the target market includes older teens and twentysomething adults (particularly the "office lady" demographic), and is a major expression of Japanese "Kawaii Culture".
* On the topic of Sanrio, they made merchandise featuring [[SweetSheep Chirin]] to promote the release of ''Anime/RingingBell'' (''Chirin No Suzu'') between 1976 and 1978. The character was featured on tons of merchandise ([[https://i.imgur.com/nVsZ269.jpg such as bags]] and [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chirindoll.jpg stuffed animals]]) keeping his happy and sweet nature, which even extends to Sanrio Animation's own [[https://i.imgur.com/Lc0Cjsv.png animation cells]] showing [[https://imgur.com/a/53hVp0a a happy Chirin on the top border]]. This is jarring for people familiar with the story, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids considering the]] [[FaceHeelTurn fate of the protagonist]] and the [[DisguisedHorrorStory movie's]] [[DownerEnding depressing]] and [[TearJerker melancholy tone.]]
* An action figure of Iruka from ''Anime/{{Naruto}}'' came with a large plastic shuriken for him to throw. This may not seem bad, until you remember that Iruka was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfp-Q16_JUg stabbed by an identical looking shuriken]] in the first episode of the series, and the first chapter of the manga.
* ''Literature/KinosJourney'':
** There's a water gun replica of Kino's colt navy revolver, and if that isn't weird enough, it comes in bright pink!
** Dengenki Bunko made a fanservicey web browser game where you click on female characters from their properties to strip them. One of said characters is Kino, when ''Kino's Journey'' is well known for completely lacking any sort of sexualization (not counting ''Literature/GakuenKino''), [[AmbiguousGenderIdentity and whether or not Kino even identifies as female is left ambiguous]].
* Creator/VizMedia included an ad for the ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'' movie ''Big Trouble in Nekonron China'' on some of their ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' VHS tapes. The risque jokes in that movie already makes this a somewhat questionable choice, but the series it's based on which it assumes familiarity with, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids while aimed at kids]] [[ValuesDissonance in Japan]], would especially raise a few eyebrows from American parents if little Pokémon-loving Timmy wanted to watch it, due to all the frontal nudity in it. Creator/ADVFilms including an ad for ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'' in their VHS of ''Anime/SonicTheHedgehogTheMovie'' also counts, but for violence and heavy thematic elements that [[CerebusSyndrome don't come into play until late in the series]]. And if you think that two decades later, companies would have learned not to advertise inappropriate anime before children's media, you would be mistaken, as the most egregious example of all happened in 2019. A trailer for the first ''Manga/MadeInAbyss'' compilation film was played before ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie2TheSecondPart'' and ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragonTheHiddenWorld''. The portion of the series covered by that film was rated PG-13, [[FromBadToWorse but it only gets worse from there]], as the series is infamous for its extremely graphic, disturbing, and very much R-rated {{Gorn}} and BodyHorror in spite of its cutesy art style, to the point where it's practically the poster child for WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids.
** The 1997 adaptation of ''Literature/ADogOfFlanders'' was also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov5SBf6WuOI advertised]] on multiple ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' VHS tapes, and was [[NeverTrustATrailer made to look like an uplifting coming of age story]]. Most kids who see this movie would be traumatized for life, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids though to be fair it is still meant for kids]], and was even referenced in an episode of ''Pokémon''. But still, the trailer does not even hint at the infamous DownerEnding.
** Though milder than the other examples, one VHS of ''Anime/{{Medabots}}'' included a trailer for ''Literature/SorcererStabberOrphen'' in it, which is quite a bit more violent than ''Medabots'' ever got. Bafflingly, one of the more violent scenes of a character being ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice ([[BloodlessCarnage albeit bloodlessly]]) was included in that very trailer.
* ''Anime/SailorMoonCrystal''-themed menstrual pads were released for the franchise's 20th anniversary. This at least makes some sense, since one of the stated goals of the revival is to target adult women who were fans of the show when they were children. According to J-List, this is because the phrase "Sailor Moon is coming to visit" is used as an UnusualEuphemism for getting your period in Japan.
* There are officially licensed ''Rilakkuma'' condoms, complete with adorable packaging.
* There's [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-list/2013-03-16 this list]] of weird anime marketing campaigns, ranging from ''Manga/LuckyStar''-scented motor oil to ''Franchise/HelloKitty'' tarot cards to [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion "LCL-filled"]] strawberry jam cakes.
* ''Manga/TheFlowersOfEvil'' sells a t-shirt that looks just like [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2013/06/23/flowers-of-evil-gym-uniform-t-shirt-offered Saeki's gym uniform]], which starts off the events of the series. Other than making a good cosplay prop...
* ''Anime/{{Hamtaro}}'', a cute anime about the adventures of talking hamsters that is aimed at a younger demographic, once aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami in the United States, a block that was (and is, since its revival) dedicated to action-oriented anime (''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', ''Anime/OutlawStar'', ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'', ''Anime/DragonBallZ'') and western animation (''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'') that is aimed more at preteens and teenagers. Its strange inclusion can apparently be blamed on ExecutiveMeddling, and this was [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by TOM himself during bumpers. It later moved off of Toonami and became a part of Cartoon Network's regular programming schedule, and enjoyed a sizeable PeripheryDemographic from regular Toonami watchers of the day, but what the top brass at CN were hoping to achieve with its inclusion on Toonami is still unknown.
** ''Outlaw Star'' itself was also this, due to the fact that it was a [[OtakuOClock late night]] {{Seinen}} series on a block for preteens, {{Bowdlerized}} to a TV-Y7 level. Same goes for ''Anime/TheBigO'', although that one wasn't aired during otaku o'clock but was still seinen.
* Bizarrely, Creator/FoxKids attempted to take ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'', which is aimed at a unisex teenage audience, and edited it to be for 6-11 year old boys. This not only involved censoring violent content, but even removing entire episodes and scenes that leaned too heavy into {{shojo}} tropes or that the young target audience would find boring. Due to bad ratings this showing was cancelled after only eight episodes aired. One wonders why they bothered to show it at all. ("Keeping the rights away from Toonami" is the most popular theory).
* Another odd "anime edited to be for a demographic it wasn't intended for" would be Creator/KidsWB taking the quintessential pink and frilly MagicalGirl ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' and attempting to court more boys by giving Syaoran equal billing to protagonist Sakura and removing a huge chunk of plot-crucial episodes just because they didn't have Syaoran in them, and also toning down the more overtly girly elements. Again, it's quite odd to go through all the trouble of licensing a girls show and editing it to hell and back if you never wanted a girls show in the first place.
* On the opposite end of the spectrum, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-6C-PiuuZI this]] commercial for an anime VHS subscription [[AnimationAgeGhetto really tries to play up the fact that anime is]] DarkerAndEdgier and that it "Ain't no ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''"... Except while there are a few gory anime shown, they also use clips of ''Anime/ProjectAKo'' and ''Anime/{{Slayers}}'', two comedies that run on cartoon slapstick. While Project A-Ko does at least have nudity, the TV series for ''Slayers'' has very little in the way of adult content aside from a few ACupAngst jokes and very infrequent mild bleeding. The commercial also features ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'', a perfectly family friendly show.
* The now-defunct Argentinian TV channel Magic Kids (which as the name implies, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin was aimed at kids]]) had a original program named "El Club del Anime" in which they talked about several anime shows and movies (including some which were [[NoExportForYou never officialy released in Latin America]]) including some that are [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids not meant for children]] like ''Manga/{{Golgo13}}'' and ''Anime/{{NinjaScroll}}''. The program also shown many openings (in Japanese) of shows that were either never released in latin america or [[LateExportForYou released in later years]] like ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', ''Anime/{{DotHackSIGN}}'' or even ''Manga/{{OnePiece}}''. It seems they were aware of their [[PeripheryDemographic older viewers]] or the people behind the channel tought that animation [[AnimationAgeGhetto is just for kids]]. [[EntertainmentAboveTheirAge Given that kids will inevitably want to watch something they're too young for]], it's possible they could have just wanted a way to give kids a taste of the ForbiddenFruit without upsetting parents by showing things that are actually inappropriate.
* In 2014, some enterprising person decided to sell custom-printed condoms on Amazon. This would already be rather odd, but they decided the best example images to use were... pictures of ''Anime/{{Free}}'' characters. Using [[MrFanservice hot guys]] to advertise condoms ''would'' make sense, but ''Anime/{{Free}}'' is aimed at the teenaged YaoiFangirl demographic, who [[NerdsAreVirgins generally have no need for such products]]. Sadly (or fortunately?), the seller changed the example and the pictorial evidence has been lost to the void of Website/{{Tumblr}}.
* For the [[MilestoneCelebration 15th anniversary]] of the ''Anime/PrettyCure'' series, we have [[https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2018/06/28/theres-precure-lingerie-arienai lingerie sets based off Cure Black and Cure White]] form the original ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure''. Now women can seduce their lovers using underwear modeled after magical girl costumes worn by 14 year olds from a series aimed at little girls.
* The Website/{{Crunchyroll}} ad for ''Literature/HowNotToSummonADemonLord'''s anime adaptation makes the series look like an epic, intense, serious fantasy action series, when it's really mostly an {{ecchi}} comedy with fantasy trappings.
* [[https://soranews24.com/2015/06/05/american-marketing-turns-animes-doraemon-into-an-action-action-action-action-star/ One ad]] for ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' on Creator/DisneyXD touted the series as being filled with [[PunctuatedForEmphasis ACTION! ACTION! ACTION!]]. Doraemon is actually a slapstick comedy akin to WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants, although the [[NonSerialMovie movies]] and spinoffs indeed feature plenty of action.
* The commercials for the [=DVDs=] of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'' were narrated by [[BigBadEnsemble the]] [[HumanoidAbomination Pillar]] [[TimeAbyss Men]]. While advertising with villains is nothing new, ancient beings seem like an odd choice of character to use to advertise technology. At least the script writers and seiyuu had fun with it.
--> '''[[TheBrute Santana]]''': What is... this... device?
-->'''[[BigBad Kars]]''': Buying it justifies the means!
** Other [[{{Pun}} bizarre]] merchandise includes a [[https://www.amazon.com/Jojos-Bizarre-Adventure-Desktop-Cleaner/dp/B0088KYDDY desktop cleaner]] in the form of a doll of [[BodyHorror Santana]], and [[https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2013/04/02/child-rearing-get-bizarre-with-jojos-baby-items Baby items]] themed after a series that is absolutely not for young children. Especially JustForFun/{{egregious}} are the [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Killer Queen]] and [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind King Crimson]] items; the former's user [[KillAndReplace murders and impersonates]] a father, and the latter's user wants to [[OffingTheOffspring kill his own daughter]].
* ''Literature/MyYouthRomanticComedyIsWrongAsIExpected'' was often promoted with official art of the girls in various states of undress, wearing lingeries, bathing suits, or sexy poses. The anime itself lacks such kind of fanservice and it's definitely not Ecchi.
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': You can buy real-life versions of the ''armbands'' that the Eldians wear. Never mind the historical context behind armbands or that ''AOT'' has parallels to the Holocaust.
* ''Manga/KoiKaze'' is a series involving a romantic relationship between a [[BrotherSisterIncest brother and sister]] [[AgeGapRomance with a large age gap]]. In contrast to other manga and anime revolving around incest, this series takes the topic completely seriously rather than milking it for jokes. This is why it's so baffling that some editions of the DVD box come with comedic "no no, big brother" stickers, with the sister imploring her brother to [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/koi_kaze_stickers_1.jpg "not let his eyes wander"]] or [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/koi_kaze_stickers_2.jpg "take her somewhere fun"]].
* ''Literature/{{Anpanman}}''-branded instant curry is sold in Japan. Which is fine at first until one notices that one of the characters in the series is Currypanman, a superhero made from curry bread, who also also appears on the package of said curry.
* One of the reasons for the infamy of the Creator/FourKidsEntertainment [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=xfJuJrqFhXM National Anthem promo]] was because it had anime characters singing the national anthem of the United States. Of the shows in the promo, only one franchise (''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'') was American.
* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'' got a line of coloring books in [=McDonald=]'s Happy Meals in Japan despite not being aimed at children. This chalks up to ValuesDissonance since the anime/manga is marketed towards teens and adults in the West, but is popular with children in Japan.

[[folder:Automobiles]]
* The 1997-1999 Oldsmobile Cutlass, a [[ShortRunner short-lived]] [[PaletteSwap badge-engineered]] version of the erstwhile Chevrolet Malibu sedan in a more luxo form was ostensibly aimed at families as a rather safe, inoffensive family sedan, but it was more popular with single women in their 20s and went against the conservative image Oldsmobile had. The Oldsmobile Cutlass 3.1 V6 GLS was sought-after.
* Toyota also fell victim to this twice:
** The Toyota Vienta [=VXV10=], a luxo version of the Camry sedan and stationwagon sold between October 1995 and August 1997, was meant to be aimed at families, but those who bought the CS/V auto model were largely younger, richer Australians who wanted something sporty yet didn't look overtly sporting and could afford the high insurance. Toyota wanted a luxo family car, but ended up getting something of an unintentional RiceBurner without the stigma a sports car had; incidentally, there was never a true sporty variant of the Vienta, as the Touring version which was upscale, was more luxo than sport-luxo despite advertising at the time.
** The Toyota Aurion [=GSV40=], sold [[NoExportForYou only in Australia and New Zealand]], was initially aimed at the older crowd who found a Camry too small, and wanted a pleasant, powerful V6. The upscale Presara trim level was supposedly aimed at an older crowd, but rich young Australian women would buy it due to the fact the car wasn't emphatically sporty-looking and because it was spacious.
[[/folder]]

* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': A children's book series has Hulk going around making friends and helping people. He's never angry and always huge and green. A sweet, [[TheVoiceless silent]] guy.
* In the 90's, there were plans for Creator/FoxKids to do a SaturdayMorningCartoon adaptation of Creator/RobLiefeld's ''Comicbook/{{Youngblood}}''. The franchise's claim to fame is that it's part of [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks the trend of]] DarkerAndEdgier, HotterAndSexier, BloodierAndGorier comics starring teams of violent {{Nineties Anti Hero}}es, which makes you wonder why someone would look at that and think "This would be GREAT as a kid's show!"
** Same goes for the short-lived ''ComicBook/{{WildCATS|WildStorm}}'' [[WesternAnimation/WildCats1994 cartoon]].
* One week, ''ComicBook/BitchPlanet'' and ''ComicBook/SexCriminals'' (written by Creator/KellySueDeConnick and Creator/MattFraction, respectively) launched new issues simultaneously, so a Chicago comic-book chain, noticing that [=DeConnick=] and Fraction were married, thought it would be "cute" to announce the two issues in their newsletter by listing the writers as "Mrs. Matt Fraction" and "Mr. Kelly Sue [=DeConnick=]". Given that ''Bitch Planet'' is about a future where women are increasingly stripped of their agency, the newsletter's implication that [=DeConnick=] was the property of her husband did ''not'' go over well with fans...
* ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage'' has to be the most infamous example of this. The original comics had a lot of violence, swearing, alcohol and tobacco consumption, and the Shredder [[spoiler: dying in the first issue]]. It had since become a CashCowFranchise spawning many cartoons and toys.
** ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' gets this to a lesser extent. The comic contains a lot of on-page dismemberment, alcohol consumption, a recurring antagonist who believes he was sent by god to kill sinners, and a sub-plot of Usagi siring an illegitimate child with an already-married woman. The comic also regularly crossed over with the Ninja Turtles, and as such, would also make cameo appearances in the animated incarnations as well.
* Even before the ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'' franchise was ScrewedByTheLawyers, [[Creator/FawcettComics Fawcett]] itself was capable of causing branding problems quite on their own; ''Captain Marvel Jr.'' comics was not a "junior" version of Captain Marvel the title implied, if anything Freddy Freeman's storylines were DarkerAndEdgier than Billy Batson's.
* Brazilian Franchise ''ComicBook/MonicasGang'' is a CashCowFranchise with many merchandise, some of them are really bizarre if you take the comic's universe into consideration. Some of which are soundtracks, with some songs that are perfomed by Monica herself which are pretty decent... if you ignore that there are mutliple instances in the comic where she is portrayed as a DreadfulMusician.

[[folder:Films -- Movie Studios]]
* The higher-ups at Creator/SonyPictures seem to be unable to understand that ''ironic'' popularity and ''genuine'' popularity are not the same thing:
** ''WesternAnimation/TheEmojiMovie'':
*** In the weeks leading up to the movie's release, Creator/SonyPictures reached out to WebVideo/{{Jacksfilms}} and invited him to the movie's world premiere, arguing that he was the movie's biggest fan (as he had done several videos praising it), and since most popular [=YouTubers=] have a demographic that consists mainly of twelve-year-olds, the executives probably wanted to use him and his videos to market the film. Except Jacksfilms' "praise" of the movie was ironic, and he and every subscriber of his (who are mostly adults) were ''[[TakeThat making fun of the movie]]'', something the executives at Sony Pictures [[InsultBackfire failed to realize]].[[note]]Though it's possible they were being equally tongue-in-cheek and just reaching out to him because [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity of all the attention he brought to the movie,]] but it isn't quite clear.[[/note]] His reaction to getting invited was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1-Lnk99G1U priceless]].
*** A promotional image was posted on Twitter that parodied ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'', a book and television series involving a woman enslaved by the government to produce children. Needless to say, it [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/emoji-movie-criticized-tasteless-handmaids-tale-tweet-1024054 was quickly taken down]] after everyone pointed out that maybe this wasn't the best thing to be joking about.
** Due to a surge in memes surrounding ''Film/Morbius2022'', Sony decided to rerelease it in theaters in June 2022, apparently being unaware that not only were these memes and the fandom that had arisen from it completely ironic, one of the main parts of the joke was that [[FanworkOnlyFans very few people in the fandom have actually seen it]]. As such, it ended up only making $85,000 in its first day of rereleasing[[note]]To put it into perspective, not only is that an average of $82 per theater, ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheSecretsOfDumbledore'' still managed to make $100,000 that day despite being in half the amount of theaters that ''Morbius'' was in since it had been in theaters going on two months and had already been made available to stream for free on Creator/HBOMax[[/note]].

* The Character Greetings at Ride/DisneyThemeParks have had some pretty strange stars over the years. Meeting regular villains is justifiable, since EvilIsCool, but they've had greetings for villains like Frollo from ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'' [[note]]a deeply prejudiced official who seeks to [[FinalSolution exterminate the gypsies]] of Paris to the point of burning the entire city and, after falling in love with Esmeralda, resolves to make her love him or burn her at the stake[[/note]] and ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'''s [[spoiler: Lotso]] [[note]]who subjects toys to mistreatment, resets Buzz Lightyear and has him beat down his friends, has Chatter Telephone beaten in order to get him to explain Woody's escape plan before ordering the toys disposed of in a dumpster, and leaves Andy's toys for dead in an incinerator, despite Woody and Buzz previously saving his life[[/note]]. The fact that people can meet-and-greet some of the vilest villains Disney has ever concoted is mind-boggling, to say the least.
* On the subject of [[spoiler: Lotso]], Disney went all the way and generated ''deliberate'' Misaimed Merchandising for the character (including meet-and-greeting) before the release of ''WesternAnimation/{{Toy Story 3}}'' so that TheReveal of his utterly depraved nature in the movie would be made even more shocking (of course, no one would know that it is Misaimed Merchandising before then). After the release of the movie, the usage of this trope with him firmly becomes straight though.
* For Christmas 1986, [=McDonald's=] released ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' [[http://anamericantail1.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=143896717 Christmas stockings]], which featured Fievel on them. This may sound all well and good until you realize that Fievel is a ''Jewish'' character. A lot of Jewish groups were not happy.
* There exist ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'' [[https://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2017/11/c76e03f758443a05-600x338.jpg fish nuggets]], which have confused the heck out of Disney fans, and [[https://www.cracked.com/article_22194_6-unintentionally-depressing-toys-from-famous-movies.html have been compared to]] "a juicy venison steak with WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}} printed on the cover" by Website/{{Cracked}}.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lorax|2012}}'', somehow, some way, received [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrvg33vkdFI&feature=player_embedded a tie-in commercial for Mazda]]. It was a major target for backlash not just because of the blatant greenwashing in play, but also for the tragic irony of a car company promoting [[Literature/TheLorax something]] that's absolutely ''famous'' for its GreenAesop. The commercial probably would have been less ridiculous if the car it's advertising was either electric or a hybrid (which works in context of the story), but this is a wholly gas-run car (even when counting the fact that the advertised SUV is supposed to be more fuel-efficient than most other gas-powered cars-- that [=SUVs=] are [[HummerDinger generally not noted for environmental friendliness]] is no help either.). Double ironic in that ad has "Lorax Approved" on it - just like one of the billboards the Once-Ler puts up in his VillainSong. "And the P.R. people are lying" indeed... In fact, almost ''70 companies'' had marketing tie-ins for this film that preaches against consumerism. The movie version of another Dr. Seuss book, ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'', had the exact same problem- which resurfaced when the company behind ''The Lorax'' created and hyper-marketed [[WesternAnimation/TheGrinch2018 yet another film adaptation.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'' was used extensively in Burger King promotions. Nothing out of the ordinary, but seeing wrappers, cups, and bags printed with this GreenAesop character littering streets was pretty head-tilting. ''The Wall Street Journal'' pointed out that between this and having the world premiere in New York City's Central Park, which neccessitated tearing up some green space temporarily to accomodate crowds, this at least would teach children something about irony.
* The official website for ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'' had a Flash game where the goal is to help Donkey become a noble steed, and you're helped by the "kindly" Fairy Godmother. Anyone who has seen the film will quickly realize that the Fairy Godmother is the ''villain'' of the piece, and that Shrek and Donkey's quest to change who they are is ''not'' portrayed as a good thing (at least not in Shrek's case).
* ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'' was marketed by Burger King with chicken nugget-esque products, despite the theme of the movie -- and the Burger King marketing itself -- being against eating chicken.
** Downplayed with ''WesternAnimation/HomeOnTheRange'', which effectively removed a clear motivation for the villain -- to sell the cows for slaughter -- so that [=McDonald's=] (a hamburger chain) would collaborate with Disney on a Happy Meal promotion.
* There's a certain amount of irony in any ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' themed merchandise, given the movie's anti-commercialization themes.
* They made a [[http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=59164326&cagpspn=plat_20797702&camp=PLAPPCG-_-PID20797702:TRUS&eESource=CAPLA_DF:59164326:TRUS real-life version]] of the "Little Me" doll from ''{{WesternAnimation/Coraline}}''. Said doll is used as a spy for the Other Mother and directs Coraline toward the Other World, where all of the trouble starts, and is a likely source of ParanoiaFuel.
* In 2017, Disney cleared rights for an authorized ''TabletopGame/CardsAgainstHumanity'' game based on their properties. [[https://www.boredpanda.com/cards-against-humanity-disney-edition/ Seriously.]]
* Many ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' fans have noted that ''a lot'' of [[http://yamino.tumblr.com/post/69413868245/i-cant-deal-with-this merchandise involving Anna and Elsa]] are [[IncestSubtext romantic-seeming]]. A clip-art of Elsa and Anna staring at each other is used on much of the merchandise. Some are outright Valentine's (though, admittedly Valentine's Day is treated as a generic "Love Day" by many) or romance themed, such as cards or rings meant to be given to your significant other. Marketers seem to have missed that Elsa and Anna are sisters.
* Merchandise for ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'' depicted Stitch as a troublemaker as he was in the beginning of the film rather than a lovable alien who, while somewhat mischievous, loves his family.
* There was a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBbv1AtnAHI bumper]] on FOX to promote ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown'' where Sid promoted ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy.'' While both properties ''are'' owned by [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios 20th Century Fox]], it's still really bizarre to see a character from a family-oriented film lead into a show that is [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids very much]] ''not'' family-friendly.
* The FracturedFairyTale animated film ''Animation/RedShoesAndTheSevenDwarfs'' was made to carry the message that true beauty is on the inside and you should never judge a person by their looks alone. The film has Snow White (here portrayed as a chubby girl who becomes thinner and conventionally beautiful with the use of magical red shoes) coming to accept her looks and choosing to keep her natural form instead of her thinner one. However, the trailer for the film infamously used a scene that didn't even actually appear in the final film where she was used as FatComicRelief, and a poster featured the slogan "What if Snow White was no longer beautiful?", which led to controversy and accusations that the film was promoting fat shaming.
* ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''-branded [[https://www.reddit.com/r/CrappyDesign/comments/l16x27/a_bag_of_apples_with_a_character_on_it_that_got/ apples were created by a Dutch company.]] This seems all fine, until you remember that the protagonist of the story gets poisoned from eating an apple.
* Downplayed by design with ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', an animated feature faithfully depicting the Exodus story from MosesInTheBullrushes through the crossing of the Red Sea. Aside from a plush toy camel (referencing a brief comedy beat in the film and the general setting) included with the original [=VHS=] release, there was little merchandise beyond three soundtrack albums--two of which were "Music Inspired By" releases--and a few varieties of books. None of the latter glossed over the darker plot points of the film -- no, not even the coloring book, which actually doubled as a straight-up storybook {{Novelization}} and resembles the adult coloring books that became popular decades later.
* While ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' did get tons of toys, most of them were never sold in Toronto, which is where the film takes place, and a lot of people in Toronto actually want to buy the toys, since the movie is about their country.
* Non-fungible tokens based on Disney franchises [[https://twitter.com/veve_official/status/1456759768899481610?s=21 including]] ''WesternAnimation/WallE'', a movie highly critical of pollution and consumerism. [=NFTs=] harm the environment because of all the energy they use.
* For ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'', [[NeverTrustATrailer the CGI superhero scenes are everywhere in marketing, while in fact they take up no more than 20 minutes of screen time]]. The CGI scenes in general get the most attention in terms of marketing, when most of the film is traditionally animated. This may be due to concerns that traditionally animated features won't bring audiences in anymore, which is admittedly a legitimate concern. Averted in the Japanese trailer, where the traditionally drawn scenes are more advertised (probably because AmericanKirbyIsHardcore).
* With the release of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'' came merchandise for pretty much every major character featured in it...including the anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist [[TheQuincyPunk Spider-Punk]], who, as fans pointed out, would be fully ''against'' the amount of merchandise that's been made in his image.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' themed Christmas snowglobes, including one with ''Darth Vader as [[BadSanta Santa Claus.]]''
** ''Star Wars'' bath detergent. The cork is a figure of Darth Vader, and the cream itself is in a mini-Death Star.
** Once again: Queen Amidala's [[CallARabbitASmeerp Galactic Body Wash]].
** ''Star Wars soda cans''... in a collectible Queen Amidala can-carrying case.
** Yves Saint Laurent even did a line of Queen Amidala-inspired makeup. The "Amidala Red" lipstick was actually pretty successful.
** With the release of ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBepue-3JwI Star Wars Covergirl makeup]].
** Speaking of Episode VII, [[http://sterkiller.tumblr.com/post/139110016016/worst-birthday-card-ever this]] birthday card featuring Kylo Ren (link contains spoilers that now fall into ItWasHisSled territory).
** The release of ''Film/TheLastJedi'' saw a second big push on sales of replicas of Kylo Ren's mask. In the actual film, he smashes it in a fit of rage early on, after Snoke mocks him for wearing it, and goes unmasked for the rest of the film.
** Another controversial marketing choice, likely connected to the VillainDecay in Darth Vader and Kylo Ren's marketing: during the 2019 Star Wars Celebration, the official Star Wars Twitter account [[https://twitter.com/starwars/status/1116762406804426752 tweeted a poll]] asking the audience which side they would be on, the First Order or the Resistance. The neutral presentation of the poll alarmed several viewers, since the account was giving people the choice to side with [[ANaziByAnyOtherName space fascists.]] [[MisaimedFandom And yet that side still got 27% of the vote...]]
* There are a toyline, comic book and animated series based around the ''Film/PoliceAcademy'' franchise of films. Granted, the films cleaned up their act over time -- the first is rated R, the second PG-13, and from ''Back in Training'' onward PG -- but it's still strange given their raunchy origins.
* [[http://media.www.critograph.com/media/storage/paper1029/news/2008/03/27/Columns/Nerd-Factor.Old.Yeller.Dog.Food.Is.Franchised-3285073.shtml Many people have gotten whiplash]] while walking past a bag of ''Disney's Film/OldYeller'' brand dog food. [[ShootTheDog The one thing most people know about that story]] should be reason enough not to use it to sell pet care products!
* There was a toyline for ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy''. It never had the word "hell" anywhere on its packaging (the franchise was labeled "HB II", and the character was "Big Red"). If you can't say the guy's name in front of kids, you shouldn't be marketing to them.
* ''Bartleby'' was marketed as a zany comedy. It resembles one at the beginning, but it soon becomes apparent just how messed up the title character really is, and things take a downwards turn from there.
* ''Film/FightClub'' deals with modern society's repression of the masculine instinct, with pain, adrenaline, and physical reality replaced by vapid consumerism and technology, with Tyler Durden's whole philosophy revolving around rejecting the artificial, emasculating pleasures of modern living and embracing the harsh but fulfilling existence of our ancestors. In light of all that, one can imagine how weird it is that there's a ''[[TheProblemWithLicensedGames video game]]'' based on the film, with '''[[Music/LimpBizkit Fred Durst]]''' as a GuestFighter! When queried about this, author Chuck Palahniuk said, [[MoneyDearBoy "They can do whatever they want with my book as long as the fucking check clears."]] He and Creator/DavidFincher have talked about turning the movie into a musical, and were only about 50% joking when they did.
* There was a ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' HO train sold ([[http://www.collecttolkien.com/images/Other/Misc%20LOTR%20Train%20Set%20Hawthorne%20Village.jpg picture]]), which is only odd if you think about how the side with technology is the bad guys, and how long the heroes' journey on foot is.
* The adverts for ''Film/AboutTime'' made it look like a generic RomCom, but it's every bit as much about familial love than romantic. The TagLine is cleverly misleading about this: "A Funny Film About Love with a little bit of time travel".
* To promote the second film in ''Film/TheHungerGames'' trilogy, ''Catching Fire'', coming out in November 2013, Covergirl released a Capitol-inspired line of makeup. For those not in the know, the Capitol fashions are repeatedly described as incredibly gaudy, if not nightmarish. And nothing says "shooting yourself in the foot" like tying your brand to a city full of corrupt hedonists who force children to murder each other for entertainment!
** A lot of the advertisements also focus heavily on the love triangle, downplaying the whole "people forced to fight to the death" and "rebellion of the repressed people" angle... just like the in-universe advertising.
** Many eyebrows were also raised about the tie-in with Subway sandwiches -- in addition to talking about [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing how fun it would be to participate in the Games]], one cannot shake the whole 'starvation' angle from the story.
* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'':
** The original US dub of ''Film/GodzillaRaidsAgain'' made a truly boneheaded marketing move--in a misguided effort to pass off the film as a standalone flick (due to upper management theorizing that a standalone film would be more successful than a sequel) they changed the film's name to "Gigantis The Fire Monster", and, in a truly inexcusable move to supplant them blatantly passing Godzilla off as a "new" monster, ''altered Godzilla's iconic roar'' (by replacing it with Anguiris' own roar from the same film).
** The US dub of ''Film/MothraVsGodzilla'' renames the film as "Godzilla Vs. The Thing", and [[CoversAlwaysLie promotional artwork]] tried to portray the monster Godzilla duels as a tentacled horror so terrifying that the poster art had to be censored, and the only way to see how horrifying it is was to see the movie. Never mind that Mothra is not only the protagonist of the film, but is also a good natured monster who isn't ''remotely'' scary! (Maybe if you're an intense entomophobe, but even then, her friendliness tends to defuse that.)
* [[Creator/GuillermoDelToro Guillermo Del Toro's]] ''Film/CrimsonPeak'' is, as the director has said in multiple interviews, a Gothic Romance with ghosts in it. The film's marketing team at Universal, on the other hand, marketed the film as a more traditional haunted-house horror film. This led to a critical response that is, in a word, all over the place and weak box offices returns once the audience realized they got the movie they didn't expect.
* The advertisements of ''Film/AnAmericanWerewolfInLondon'' heavily emphasized that it was by Creator/JohnLandis (a director more known for his comedy work) and featured a lot of jokey moments, [[TrailersAlwaysLie indicating the movie was a silly parody of werewolf movies]]. Cue audiences being terribly caught off guard when the goofy ''Film/AnimalHouse''-esque farce [[HalfwayPlotSwitch turns out]] to actually be a BlackComedy horror movie that plays the werewolf's brutal killings completely straight.
** In particular, the [[https://www.filmonpaper.com/posters/an-american-werewolf-in-london-b2-artwork-style-japan/ Japanese poster]] for the film seems to have been done by someone who only knew Landis as a straight-up comedy director with a touch of raunch (''Film/AnimalHouse'').
* Creator/{{Netflix}} decided to promote the French film ''Mignonnes'' (retitled ''Film/{{Cuties}}'' for America) as a fun, sexy ''Film/StepUp'' clone about a group of underage female dancers... despite the fact the actual movie is a ''drama'' about a young African immigrant being drawn into the world of the eponymous dance troupe despite going against her family’s beliefs, with the film serving as a critique of the hypersexualization of young girls in pop culture, with a message about the dangers of such sexualized media and the impression it can have on impressionable pre-teens. Needless to say, this marketing strategy did '''''not''''' go over well with the general public, and Netflix hastily apologized and pulled back on it, [[OvershadowedByControversy though it didn’t help the film’s general reputation all that much]], especially with it being accused of [[DontShootTheMessage indulging in the things it was criticizing.]] Netflix even faced legal backlash, receiving felony indictments from the state of Texas in 2022.
* ''Film/TheDarkCrystal [[http://www.toughpigs.com/crystal-opposites/ Book of Opposites]]''. A book (a charming one nonetheless) aimed at infants... based around an IP with copious amounts of NightmareFuel. Granted, this example isn't ''as'' bad as certain other examples, but it's pretty odd.
* ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'' was marketed under the Fox family label on VHS despite receiving a PG-13.
* There exists a ''Film/{{Thor}}'' alarm clock...in the shape of a dumbbell. Not only does this have nothing to do with the movie, both ends are round, so that when one tries to turn it off, it rolls away and lands on the floor.
* ''Literature/MemoirsOfAGeisha'' is about a nine-year-old Japanese girl who is sold into servitude and forced to become a geisha, which is the Japanese equivalent of a high-end escort. For some reason, American fashion houses decided that this movie would be perfect to cash in on, with Banana Republic and Bath & Body Works producing a line of kimono-inspired dresses and accessories manufacturer Icon releasing purses with scenes from the film printed on them. There was also Fresh, which released cosmetic products associated with the film, such as sake-infused bath oils.
* OlderThanTheyThink: ''Film/SinginInTheRain'' had a comic book adaptation. What makes it this trope is that the movie is a musical with award-winning songs and choreography, none of which translate well into a static comic book.
* One of the key themes of ''Film/EatPrayLove'' is the outright rejection of Western materialism, yet that didn't stop companies from creating as much tie-merchandise as possible - from perfume to tote bags, fashion lines to tour packages, restaurant tie-ins to embroidered pillows, jewelry to lip gloss, even gelato machines and more.
* To celebrate the release of ''Film/FantasticFour'', Denny's came out with a bacon cheeseburger called "the Thing". Not only does it have nothing to do with the movie, Ben Grimm (a.k.a the Thing) is Jewish, and bacon is the least Kosher thing imaginable.
* Coors Light cut a deal to sponsor ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', the 2012 prequel to ''Film/{{Alien}}''. Not only does Coors Light not appear anywhere in the film (the characters exclusively drink liquor), one character even suffers a horrific demise when an alien virus is dropped in his drink.
* To coincide with the release of ''Film/TheHelp'', HSN launched a tie-in website selling high-end '60s chic products to fans of the film. Among the items for sale was a floral summer dress inspired by Hilly Holbrook, the movie's deeply racist antagonist, and a chocolate cake inspired by the film. For those unaware, the movie contains a scene where [[spoiler: Hilly is fed a chocolate pie containing whipped human feaces]].
* A surely intentional example: The trailer for ''Film/BlacKkKlansman'' gave the impression of a feel-good cutesy ending. This is as one would expect for the buddy-cop comedy which the film was moonlighting as (probably partially as a [[TakeThat snipe]] at ''Film/{{Bright}}''). While the core action of the film does resolve on an upbeat note, the book-ending scenes make the actual ending of the movie feel [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil rather different]]. The reason for the Misaimed Merchandising, though, was obviously to lure in people who would otherwise have been nervous about watching a Creator/SpikeLee [[InsistentTerminology joint]]. This was important because, like Spike Lee's other joints, it includes a lot of subject matter and historical footage that many people find controversial and objectionable. What this led to though, was the movie ironically being slammed by leftist activists for not being dark enough, to the point where some people were accusing Lee of selling out.
* When ''Film/TheMartian'' was released on DVD in the UK, at least some copies came with [[http://imgur.com/zezAOtu a flyer advertising a brand of redskinned potatoes]].
* ''Film/TheEmptyMan'' was marketed very poorly. The trailers made it look like something akin to ''Film/TheByeByeMan'' or some other "creepypasta-esque" horror flick. The actual film is more along the lines of a 70's horror throwback mixed with J-horror [[spoiler:that transitions into a CosmicHorrorStory by the end.]]
* While ''Film/JennifersBody'' is an R-rated HorrorComedy, it is also about a toxic PseudoRomanticFriendship between two teenage girls whose titillating scenes are mostly played for FanDisservice. It was also written by Creator/DiabloCody fresh off of ''Film/{{Juno}}'', at a time when her writing was largely associated with teenage {{hipster}} characters. That didn't stop the studio, Fox Atomic (a distribution label for [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios 20th Century Fox]] that focused on teen movies), from marketing it primarily to horny adolescent boys, a demographic too young to see the movie, largely because it starred Creator/MeganFox at the height of her status as a [[MsFanservice sex symbol]]. The poster focused on Fox in a [[CatholicSchoolGirlsRule sexy schoolgirl uniform]] that she never actually wore in the film while the words "hell yes!" were written on the chalkboard behind her, the trailer likewise emphasized her sex appeal and [[GirlOnGirlIsHot bisexuality]], and one idea to promote the film (which director Creator/KarynKusama immediately nixed) was to have Fox host an ''amateur porn site''. The result was a bad case of NeverTrustATrailer that caused the film to fail at the box office, only being [[VindicatedByHistory rediscovered]] on home video years later by its ''actual'' target audience of teenage girls and young women.
-->'''[[https://www.vox.com/i-think-youre-interesting/2018/11/10/18080168/jennifers-body-diablo-cody-interview-reborn Cody:]]''' ...the movie was marketed all wrong. I’m not usually an argumentative person. In fact, I’m really passive. But that was like the one time I’ve gotten in a fight, because I was so furious. They said, “We want to market this movie to boys who like Megan Fox. That’s who’s going to go see it.” And I was, like, “No! This movie is for girls [too]!” That audience, they did not attempt to reach.
* At least one restaurant held a character dining event with the Sanderson sisters from ''Film/{{Hocus Pocus}}'', despite the fact they attempt to eat children to maintain their life and youth in their respective film, and its plot focuses around the main characters preventing them from doing so.
* A hidden trailer for ''Film/TetsuoTheIronMan'' was included in promotional trailer discs for manga. While it's not a total reach to think manga aficionados might be interested in watching ''Tetsuo'', especially if they were part of the older teen or adult PeripheryDemographic, this trailer [[https://twitter.com/oddheader/status/1322224688928595968?s=20 was also included]] as an EasterEgg in Playstation demo discs, where it was seen by many children without context and [[NightmareFuel gave them plenty of nightmares.]]
* The 1994 Creator/GarryMarshall film ''Film/ExitToEden'' was a romantic comedy based on an ''extremely'' kinky UsefulNotes/{{BDSM}} romance novel written by Creator/AnneRice, which added a major comedic subplot about a pair of bumbling cops (played by Creator/DanAykroyd and Creator/RosieODonnell) going undercover at a BDSM resort to catch a pair of jewel thieves--possibly to make the story more marketable to moviegoers who might have been scared off by the sexual themes. But the film's trailers focused more-or-less exclusively on the bumbling cops, while heavily downplaying the fairly earnest love story about a submissive man's sexual discovery. The marketing campaign managed to turn away almost everyone who might have enjoyed a steamy BDSM love story, while revealing just enough of the sexual themes to turn away most of the people who might have enjoyed a wacky sex comedy. The end result was a movie that barely drew in anybody, becoming an infamous BoxOfficeBomb.
* The song "Puttin' On The Ritz" from ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'' made its way onto an ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'' Sing-Along VHS. While the song itself is harmless, the movie it's from is not kid-friendly making it an odd choice for a Sing-Along VHS. One has to wonder why Fox didn't use any songs from a more family-oriented film they owned like ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic''.
* The streaming platform Ivi has the 2022 Slovak film ''The Enchanted Cave'' rated 16+. That's despite the fact that it's a sweet FeministFantasy fairytale more tame and fluffy than your average Disney Princess movie, and any viewer expecting steamy content and/or a cutthroat CrapsackWorld would grow very baffled very soon.

* ''Literature/TheDarknessOutsideUs'': The book is marketed, primarily, as an YA QueerRomance about astronauts from warring nations sent on a space mission to rescue one's sister. The novel is pretty dark, actually, [[spoiler:the main characters die at the end of each chapter, replaced by clones in the next one, making for a rpetty heartwrenching read]], and many readers wished it was marketed primarily as an adult sci-fi mystery.
* ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' is often marketed as "Creator/JKRowling, Russian style". This is a book series that includes at least one [[MillsAndBoonProse very descriptive]] sex scene, an incredible amount of alcohol consumption, quite a bit of swearing and craploads of violence, as well as numerous very intricate and intelligent {{Plan}}s. In short, it is not a kids' book. But then again, it depends on what they mean by "Russian style".
* Plush dolls of [[EldritchAbomination Cthulhu]] are an interesting example; both the makers and buyers play it for deliberate post-modernish {{irony}}. Creator/HPLovecraft is rolling in his grave(with laughter?) nonetheless.
** A report of a kid who loved to take naps with her Cthulhu plush toy: "Me and Cthulhu are gonna go to sleep now, but when we wake up, we're gonna rise out of the ocean and EAT YOU!"
** There's a 'My Little Cthulhu' shirt. [[http://paizo.com/products/btpy7ywm?My-Little-Cthulhu-TShirt We're not making this up.]]
** And [[http://genkigear.co.uk/shop/article_CUK01.001/Cutethulhu-Kids-Tee-Green.html?sessid=DFcCWUnBE1Cvs9l1BIM5cgvehbS0Qy4M4v9TUOZZtnhmyV6lXtTPk80SWj3GF8zh&shop_param=cid%3D13%26aid%3DCUK01.001%26 'Cutethulu.']]
** And C Is for Cthulhu: The Lovecraft Alphabet Book. A board book aimed at very young children. It illustrates each letter of the alphabet with oddly cute Lovecraftian horrors. "Y is for Yog Sothoth. I see all, just like Santa"
** See also [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/81337 this animation]].
* Little, Brown, and Company made a bizarre attempt at marketing the ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'' light novels at a mainstream American YoungAdult demographic. In their own words, they wanted to make it a "household name". The series is already deeply steeped in {{otaku}} culture, and their decision to make it mainstream friendly was to remove all the anime-style illustrations... But keep all of the Japanese and otaku slang untranslated. Chances are, if an American teenager understands what "{{moe}}" means, they're probably already an OccidentalOtaku, and wouldn't have been bothered by the anime illustrations in the first place. In fact, they probably would have already been familiar with the series [[AdaptationDisplacement through the anime]]. At best, all this edition accomplished was giving fans of the series a way to read it in public without getting any weird looks.
* ''Harry Potter'' and the vibrating Nimbus 2000 Broomstick made by Mattel. Shortly after it was released during the 2001 holiday season, girls apparently began to discover that toy had ''other'' functions, as evidenced by some of the [[http://www.methodshop.com/gadgets/reviews/potters-stick/index.shtml reviews by parents on Amazon]] talking about how even their older daughters ''loved'' playing with that toy. Mattel caught on to this after a while and permanently discontinued the item.
* ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga''. If something exists, you can probably find a ''Twilight'' version of it. Clothing? Posters? Bags? Candy? Bed sets? Band-aids? Jewelry boxes? Valentine cards? Barbie dolls? Board games? Temporary tattoos? You can find ''Twilight'' versions of all those things and more. Even [[{{Squick}} vibrators]]. (Yes, they're sparkly.)
** Burger King had a tie-in "pull off the Twilight sticker on the package to win" campaign, and aired commercials where overzealous fans harassed customers to pick "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob" by crowding around them and trying to explain why the characters were so great (to blank stares and incredulous reactions from the diners). It therefore ensured that anyone outside of the target demographic would stay far, ''far'' away from the restaurant until the promotion ended.
** A tie-in commercial for Volvo has the car company trying to market their vehicles to preteen girls by equating the danger one can face (shown via Bella unsuccessfully trying to ride a motorcycle) with the safety and security of a luxury car. Don't forget your financing options and down payments, girls.
* ''Literature/TheCasualVacancy'' is the first book Creator/JKRowling wrote after Franchise/HarryPotter, which is naturally how it was advertised. It's a straight, rather dry political novel. The book is also rather unfit for HP's younger fans, due to having quite a bit of sexual content. It's no surprise that the initial response from the reading community was not like or dislike, but confusion. (It's also little surprise that Rowling's [[Literature/CormoranStrikeNovels next books]] were written [[MoustacheDePlume under a pseudonym]].)
* The Russian novel ''Mumu'' was written and sold as a scathing depiction of the inequities of life under the aristocracy. Russians decided it made a better childrens' book, leading to Americans being shocked when the animated feature clearly being sold for children ends in the puppy being drowned.
* Penguin Books added ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' to their Modern Classics line of paperbacks in 2014, coinciding with [[MilestoneCelebration its 50th anniversary]]. Thing is, this particular line is targeted at adults rather than kids. The outside-the-box thinking behind the unique cover of this edition -- a photo of a girl made up to look creepy -- got Penguin [[http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-28703254 in some hot water]]; critics argued that a children's novel that isn't regarded as having the crossover appeal that something like ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has didn't belong in this line in the first place.
* [=NFTs=] (which emit a lot of greenhouse gases) based on Creator/DrSeuss books, [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/dr-seuss-nft-seussibles-1235062806/ even]] ''Literature/TheLorax'', which is about taking care of the environment.
* [[https://www.starryforestbooks.com/babys-classics-series The Baby's Classic series]] are board books for babies based on classic literature. Most of them are based on children's books like ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'' or ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' and make perfect sense... But then there's ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' and ''Literature/{{Dracula}}''.

* ''Series/FearFactor'''s merchandising included candy (such as mango flavored gummy candy shaped like sheep eyeballs and cola-flavored gummy cockroaches coated with icing so they crunch when you'd eat them) and push-up popsicles from Popsicle named "''Fear Factor'' Pop-Ups".
* Among HBO's line of season one ''Series/GameOfThrones'' merch, an odd choice of T-Shirt was unveiled just for the ladies; a House Frey shirt. Lord Frey is both untrustworthy and a DirtyOldMan with a teenage bride, as well as one of the most despicably evil characters in the series. Hardly the faction a lot of fans, new or old, would really want to get behind.
** There is also a Hand of the King pin, which becomes unfortunate with what tends to happen to people who wear it in the show, considering the show opens with the death of one of them and bad things continue to happen to subsequent wearers.
* Creator/KidsWB did numerous crossover promotions for their shows, but the most bizarre of them all would probably be [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGJrSccCZv4 this]] promotion featuring ''Series/SeventhHeaven'' and ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries''. The former wasn't even on the Kids WB block and was for a completely different demographic.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': Romulan Ale-flavored energy drinks are available. For those unfamiliar with ''Star Trek'', Romulan Ale is an illegal beverage with effects somewhere between FantasticDrug and GargleBlaster. As such, it is generally only served for special occasions (notable examples being Kirk's birthday in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' and the dinner with the Klingon diplomats in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', with Bones mentioning in the latter case that he needs to put on a pot of black coffee after consuming it). The idea of putting it in the same line as Red Bull would be akin to making ''District 9'' cat food.
** For the remastered edition of "[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Best of Both Worlds]]", there is a Facebook app that lets you make a profile picture of yourself as one of the Borg. There is something both cool and terrifying of the fact that you can willingly make yourself look like a person from a race of half-man, half-machine people that assimilate others towards their cause, bring entire races and ships to their knees, and operate on a [[HiveMind collective consciousness]].
** Most people did not expect Star Trek to last long, so a company called Remco shipped out all sorts of hastily assembled products, from tanks and helicopters to helmets with flashing light emitters and sonic sound.
* ''Series/DoctorWho''[='=]s legendary "Dalekmania" in the '60s, which spawned a craze for all things Dalek -- in addition to the usual toys and OfficialCosplayGear, there were such wonders as "Dalek Death Ray Ice Lollies", fashion shoots for Vogue in which groovy '60s babes fondled Dalek eyestalks, Dalek novelty pop songs about partying with sexy Daleks and Dalek cuddly toys, all focusing on a race of ScaryDogmaticAliens based on particularly hysterical Nazis. This also spawned a whole line of toy guns said to be "[[IAmNotShazam Dr. Who's]] Anti-Dalek" weapons (when the Doctor [[BatmanGrabsAGun almost never uses guns]]). This whole trope was eventually deconstructed in the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' audio story "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho040Jubilee Jubilee]]", which postulates the kind of Britain which would market Dalek iconography to children as necessarily being a society with a ForeignCultureFetish for Dalek culture, becoming [[PuttingOnTheReich a Nazi-like empire fixated on conquering others and erasing everything different]].
* [=Lot18=], a wine-making company, decided that it would be a good idea to produce a line of tie-in wines...for ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale''. The idea was quickly scrapped when they realised that describing wine as a seduction you "may as well give in" to, then tying it into a show that routinely features rape, was in very poor taste.
* There's tons of merchandise for ''Series/{{Friends}}'' that is aimed at kids, mainly clothing, despite the show itself being aimed at a much older audience.
* Once a tabletop game based on ''Series/TheQueensGambit'' was announced, the common reaction was "isn't that just chess?"
* This has been [[https://www.businessinsider.com/sex-and-the-city-reboot-peloton-and-just-like-that-2021-12 cited by some outlets]] as the reason for exercise bike company Peloton's spectacular share drop in late 2021, as a key product placement ended up backfiring horribly for the company. It signed off on a placement deal for the first episode of the ''Series/SexAndTheCity'' reboot, ''Series/AndJustLikeThat'' that would see one of its flagship bikes showcased in a prominent role. It ended up being used to show that [[spoiler:series mainstay Mr. Big (Chris Noth) has a heart attack and dies just after finishing a workout on the bike]]. The scene resulted in the company having to do damage control, while some health experts had to make public statements telling people that exercise bikes wouldn't cause them to have spontaneous heart attacks after a single use.
* Quite a bit of ''Series/KamenRider'' merchandise is centered around its iconic NebulousEvilOrganisation Shocker, even though they're a group of ''Nazi'' terrorists who regularly attempts to mass murder people. But hey, that doesn't stop them from having cool branding, and so you can get things like [[https://www.otaquest.com/kamen-rider-shocker-secret-base-clock/ Shocker clocks]] and [[https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2020/05/premium-bandai-announces-kamen-rider-x-marbles-co-collaboration-shocker-merchandise/ Shocker baseball caps]]. This has even extended to Shocker's [[{{Mooks}} combatmen]] being turned into goofy [[BreakoutMookCharacter mascot mooks]] and given a line of merch of their own.
%%* While ''Series/TheMandalorian'' doesn't contain anything particularly objectionable, the themes and storylines are still too mature for the average five-year-old. That didn't stop Disney from including a KidAppealCharacter and plastering his likeness on anything they could get their hands on.
* ''Series/{{Yellowjackets}}'', a show about the horrors a group of teenagers go through when they are stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash, was advertised on pre-flight bins that you find in airports.

* In 1999, Compaq Computers sponsored musician [[Music/ThePolice Sting's]] (then-current) album ''Brand New Day'', as part of a marketing tie-in to promote their new line of products and services. The only problem is that point of ''Brand New Day'' is Sting lambasting the use of consumer products and ridiculing anyone who believes someone is a god because they brought out a "newer and better" version of something. It even says this in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA46ZNjrzeY music video]]. Somehow, no one at Compaq (not even their vice-president of marketing, who stated that the song "fit in with our core values") realized that having [[IsntItIronic a song telling the listener not to embrace pointless upgrades and newer versions might not be a good fit for their brand-new line of computer products]].
* In 1992 there was a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbjGp9F2IkE pair of branded perfumes]] for women and men, respectively: Mystique de Music/MichaelJackson and Legende de Music/MichaelJackson.
* [[Music/LarcEnCiel L'arc~En~Ciel]] had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gekitotsu_Toma_L%27Arc:_TomaRunner_vs_L%27Arc-en-Ciel their own video game]]. And no, it wasn't a RhythmGame. It was... a MascotRacer.
* Music/{{Vocaloid}}: In China, there are [[https://vocaverse.network/threads/luo-tianyi-now-sells-feminine-hygiene-pads.1017/#post-9055 Luo Tianyi endorsed menstrual pads!]]
* Music/HatsuneMiku and Crypton Future Media:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8E3QCT4FEE This]] Japanese commercial for Domino's Pizza is [[MemeticMutation rather infamous]]. The campaign included an app where Miku would dance on your pizza box!
** Toyota Corolla had an ad campaign in the United States aimed at a mainstream audience featuring Hatsune Miku. This was back when Vocaloid was niche at best in the states, with most of the fanbase being tween and teenage OccidentalOtaku who were too young to afford a car, if not too young to even drive one.
** Hatsune Miku performed to promote Miku Expo on ''Series/TheLateShowWithDavidLetterman''.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_XMIGjJoS8 This hair care product commercial]] featuring Miku isn't too weird... Until she starts talking to Creator/ScarlettJohansson!
** There's a [[https://otakumode.com/shop/556915e222980a7a447d1df8/Chogokin-Miracle-Henkei-Hatsune-Miku-x-Rody transforming Miku toy]] that turns into a Rody!
** Miku, Rin, and Len appeared as guest characters in an ''[[VideoGame/EnsembleStars Ensemble Stars Music]]'' event. While Len makes sense, Rin and Miku are very out of place since ''Enstars'' is a joseimuke game with [[CastFullOfPrettyBoys an entirely male cast]] aside from the protagonist. The collab was well received, however.
* In the 1980s, a local TV station in St. Joseph, Missouri used an (instrumental) clip from Music/{{Devo}}'s "Snowball" as the theme for their nightly news program. The station was likely using it for the high-energy driving melody line and counting on few people in their small and rather stodgy market recognizing it.
* Christian boy band Plus One were originally created as TheMoralSubstitute for Music/BackstreetBoys and Music/{{NSYNC}}, but the mad rush to market boy bands to tween girls led to Plus One recording a song for the ''[[Anime/Pokemon2000 Pokémon: The Movie 2000]]'' soundtrack, appearing on secular TV shows such as ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'', and getting Radio/RadioDisney airplay (with "Last Flight Out" showing up on ''Radio Disney Jams, Vol. 4'').
* A pop remix of Music/ShaniaTwain's "That Don't Impress Me Much" was used as the official song of the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup, even though the song (which is about Shania turning down three loser guys) has nothing to do with soccer at all.
* Music/{{Gorillaz}}'s 20th anniversary reissue of their debut album was originally announced to be bundled up with NFT art collectibles, which didn't go over well with fans ''at all'', in large part of [=NFTs=] being notoriously disastrous to the environment, conflicting with how Gorillaz themselves have been known to have been a very [[GreenAesop environmentally conscious]] band (their album ''Music/PlasticBeach'' remains one of their most popular and beloved projects in large part for [[GaiasLament its depiction of ecological decay]]). Fortunately, the backlash was potent enough that the offer was recanted, with series artist Jamie Hewlett confirming they would no longer be pursued.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Back in 1999, during the heyday of the ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' comic strip, creator Scott Adams tried marketing [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilberito Dilberitos]], a line of vitamin-packed vegan microwave burritos meant to appeal to the extremely narrow audience of fans of the strip who also eschewed animal products, and who didn't care much for taste. Not surprisingly, the Dilberito was discontinued in 2003.
* A restaurant chain called [[ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} [=GarfieldEATS=]]] [[https://twitter.com/garfieldeatsapp/status/1188170728811696129?s=21 offers a menu item]] called [[ComicStrip/USAcres "Roy's Chicken Pizza"]], claiming that he's the spokesperson since in the ''U.S. Acres'' shorts on ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', he defends the chickens from predators. [[LetsMeetTheMeat Roy himself is a chicken, and the pizza itself is made of other chickens.]]
** In 1991, Garfield released a jazz album, as an attempt to [[FollowTheLeader cash in on the success of a Peanuts jazz album]] release two years earlier.

[[folder:Pinballs]]
* In the late '00s, Creator/{{Stern}} started trying to sell {{pinball}} to people in China. However, they seemingly didn't do any research into what appeals to people in China and attempted to sell machines like ''Big Buck Hunter Pro'', which barely sold any units because it was an American franchise with pretty little presence in China. In addition, pinball is unfamiliar to most people in China, which Stern didn't take into account: Due to a total lack of introduction to what pinball is and how to play then, people largely had no clue what to do when stepping up to the machine. Lastly, Stern simply exported these machines to China completely unchanged and untranslated, meaning the machines were still completely in English without a lick of Chinese anywhere on them and required electrical transformers to even be plugged in.[[note]]It is normal for pinball machines to be only in English regardless of where it is in the world though. Stern is the only company that provides options in other languages, which is only French and Spanish, and only for some machines.[[/note]]
* Then, it happened again to Stern, only domestically, with ''Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}''. The Stern people knew that the biggest potential audience would be fans of the band, but the machine itself contains a plastic cutout of Mick Jagger that moves left and right, getting in the way, and the game encourages the player to repeatedly hit him as hard as possible with the ball as often as possible. Someone on the design team failed to realize beating up Mick isn't exactly what most Rolling Stones fans dream of doing, and "Mick on a Stick" became the poster child for the ScrappyMechanic in pinball from there on out.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Wrestling/{{WCW}} made Wrestling/{{Sting}} bathrobes and ''[[Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro WCW Nitro]]'' cologne. Smelling like a large sweaty muscleman ranks pretty low on the list...

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* Mild example: For the 2021 Halloween season, the Creator/PBSKids app showcased their characters wearing costumes for Halloween. Among these, the icon for ''Series/DonkeyHodie'' showcased her in a lobster costume. It turns out to be this trope because of ''why'' she was wearing it in-universe - in the episode "Spooky Shadow Swamp", Donkey wears it to face her fear of shellfish while in a museum, and Purple Panda implies that Donkey is still afraid of shellfish. She also wears the same costume in a Halloween message posted on the Instagram account for the show.
* ''Series/SesameStreet'':
** Behold, the Big Bird [[http://www.toughpigs.com/the-world-of-muppet-crap-the-big-bird-eggbeater/ Eggbeater]]. Big Bird is a bird, birds hatch from eggs, and an eggbeater mashes up eggs so they can be used to make food like cake. Big Bird WouldHurtAChild.
** A children's party venue meant for kids ages 2-7 held an event about Elmo meeting Spider-Man. The characters are aimed at two different age groups, so seeing them together was very strange.
* ''Series/{{LazyTown}}'' aired on the preteen-oriented Creator/{{Jetix}} in Central and Eastern Europe, a strange decision considering the show's target audience in most other countries was a pre-school audience. The same applies to its run on Creator/{{YTV}} in Canada, where it aired alongside shows targeted towards older kids. While YTV DID actually have a preschool block in the 90s and early 2000s, that block was long gone from the channel by the time Lazytown started airing (they did try another attempt at a preschool block with YTV Playtime a few years later, but Lazytown was gone from the channel by that point)

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Behold, the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' [[https://2warpstoneptune.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/dd-cycle-8.jpg power cycle!]] With ''exciting'' 3-D "Dragon Head". Block of wood not included. (Okay, it seems more based on the cartoon, but still...)
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du0emDgJ-L4 This]] Creator/GamesWorkshop commercial is too upbeat and kinda completely forgets the grimdark lore that makes for most of the games' appeal in the first place.

[[folder:Theatre]]
* Live theater souvenir merchandise usually consists of souvenir programs, mugs, T-shirts, etc. Creator/CirqueDuSoleil goes further (especially online) with jewelry, accessories, stationery, and fine art pieces, few of which relate to one show in particular, but rather the company in general. It's not unlike Disney's adult-targeted merchandise, but it does result in oddities such as Cirque-decorated salt and pepper shakers and lip balm in Cirque tins.
* The ''Theatre/DisneyOnIce'' shows often devote segments to the company's latest animated films and/or characters. A rare case of a live-action film getting represented came in the early [[TheEighties Eighties]], when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilJMC09imKM one edition]] featured a ''Film/{{Tron}}''-inspired segment...
* Downplayed example: ''Theatre/DearEvanHansen'' has a lot of marketing geared towards inspiring the audience, with the [[EngineeredHashtag hashtag]] [[YouAreNotAlone "#YouWillBeFound"]] used often. This is based on the in-universe campaign "The Connor Project", and while the campaign ''does'' empower Evan, Connor's family, and thousands of others, it's still based around a major mischaracterization of a suicide victim, and Evan exploits this lie for attention.
* The ''Theatre/LesMiserable'' social media frequently edits the famous poster image of young Cosette for holidays (never French holidays, either) and sporting events that the young abused child with the ThousandYardStare would have no need to celebrate. Most glaringly, they photoshopped the starving, neglected French orphan [[https://www.tumblr.com/lesmissocials-fuckedup/734820278658531328/this-also-sounds-like-a-good-time-to-remind?source=share enjoying a feast on American Thanksgiving.]]
* ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors'' [[WesternAnimation/LittleShop had a Saturday Morning kids cartoon based on it]].
** Speaking of ''Little Shop,'' [[https://www.instagram.com/p/B2UetQrhpiN/ one flower shop in Pasadena]] gave away free seed packets to promote the Pasadena Playhouse production, which is eerily reminiscent of the marketing in-universe that [[spoiler:leads to the plants taking over the world.]]
* Comparatively mild, but still full of FridgeLogic: the Broadway production of ''Theatre/BeMoreChill'' features a Playbill insert that advertises the show's social media and merchandise. The header for the insert reads, "Awesome party, we're so glad you came!" Out of context, it seems fine, being a fun shout-out from the show's SignatureSong...except said song, "Michael in the Bathroom", is famously about a kid who is ''having a panic attack'' at a party, and the closing line "Awesome party, I'm so glad I came" is either [[SarcasmMode sarcasm]] or [[TryingNotToCry a fruitless attempt to hide his pain.]]
* ''Theatre/{{Elisabeth}}'' as a show and its fandom is both rife with BlackHumor, so naturally the merchandise follows suit.
** The Vienna production sold a nail file with the Empress' signature. Elisabeth was stabbed to death by a sharpened industrial file in real life.
** The Creator/TakarazukaRevue production sells milk baths themed after Elisabeth. The titular character is derided and hated in the show for taking baths in milk to maintain her beauty, while the people are dying and suffering from lack of milk.
** The Toho production has sold a Franchise/HelloKitty clear file (as an anniversary souvenir of the Mayerling Incident, no less) dressed like Crown Prince Rudolf, and a mini keyring in the shape of a gun with little wings. The Mayerling Incident was a MurderSuicide in which Rudolf shot and killed one of his mistresses, Mary Vetsera (AdaptedOut of the musical), then killed himself. In the show, it's portrayed as Rudolf chasing/being chased by [[TheGrimReaper Death]] and his angels - hence the wings.

[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* [=Th13teen=] at Ride/AltonTowers; it was marketed as "the scariest rollercoaster of all time" and labelled as a new type of ride called a "psychoaster", and boasted a wide range of promotional stunts (most notably the suggestion that guests had to ''sign a waiver'' to ride it)... when it was actually a mostly family-friendly coaster with a neat drop-track gimmick. It's generally considered a good ride nowadays but the attempts to hype it up only hurt its initial reputation.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Toys]]
* Dear God, {{Franchise/Barbie}} (and its imitations!) Some of the following are "black label" Barbies, which are marketed to collectors both of dolls and merchandise. But that doesn't stop the "3+" label on some of them (especially the Elektra one) from being funny...:
** ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' [[http://cdn2.ioffer.com/img/item/956/935/01/ASM77nLfTpbYYeJ.jpg Bar]][[http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/Ken_Legolas.jpg bi]][[http://www.cherrytoyshop.com/shop/c/cherrytoyshop/img-lib/spd_20050626143210_b.jpg es.]]
** ''Franchise/StarTrek'' [[http://web.ecomplanet.com/USIM3087/ServerContent/MyCustomImages/USIM3087CustomImage2164879.jpg Bar]][[http://img.trekmovie.com/images/merchandise/barbie/Barbies2.jpg bies.]]
** ''Series/TheXFiles'' [[http://www.dollgenie.com/giftsets/1998-GS-X-Files.jpg Barbies.]]
** ''Franchise/TombRaider'' [[https://barbie.mattel.com/shop/en-us/ba/tomb-raider-barbie-doll-fjh53 Barbie]]
** ''Film/KingKong1933'' [[http://www.marys-antiques.com/images/6078f.jpg Barbies.]]
** Creator/AlfredHitchcock's Film/TheBirds [[http://www.designboom.com/tools/WPro/images/08-03decemberblogs/barbie01.jpg Barbies.]]
** ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'' [[http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2135/2179879600_7cf9254acd.jpg Barbies]].
** Marvel Comics' [[http://cdn3.ioffer.com/img/item/599/063/16/aQ3dybFKPe1etPs.jpg Invisible Woman]], [[http://cdn2.ioffer.com/img/item/817/780/76/o_mEP4Uqruy2Ie0Of.jpg Elektra]] and [[http://outlandct.com/catalog/images/SPDRMN%20MARY%20JANE.jpg Mary Jane Watson-Parker]] Barbies.
** [[http://extra.listverse.com/amazon/dolls/rosie-2.jpg Rosie O'Donnell]] Barbies.
** Music/MichaelJackson [[http://themusingwordsmith.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/michael-j-doll.jpg Bar]][[http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ofWfZleGL._SL500_AA280_.jpg bies.]]
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earring_Magic_Ken Earring Magic Ken]].
* [[http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/action/girlscoutsbarbie Barbie promoting herself through the Girl Scouts.]] This resulted in a healthy dose of backlash due to the tragic hypocrisy of the Girl Scouts -- the bastion of positive role models for girls ''and'' a non-profit organization -- suddenly shilling a heavily commercialized toy line that's absolutely ''famous'' for its sexualized image. (That this product placement came mere weeks after the publication of the ''Magazine/SportsIllustrated'' swimsuit issue featuring Barbie really didn't help matters.)
* ''Toys/{{Tamagotchi}}'' has had a few unusual licensed variants, including ones based on ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' and ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
%% Dark Souls 3 example had poor grammar and was Square Peg Round Trope.
* The marketing campaign for ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' is seemingly aimed at pre-teen boys: EA decided that the best way to market the sequel to their acclaimed, M-rated horror game was to let everybody know how much their mom wouldn't like them playing it. Then again, [[EntertainmentAboveTheirAge at least half the people playing M-rated shooters]] ''[[EntertainmentAboveTheirAge are]]'' [[EntertainmentAboveTheirAge pre-teen boys]] (many of whom [[AnimationAgeGhetto refuse to play anything else]]), so maybe EA knows its audience ''too'' well.
** However, one of the people working on the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jC-PlmTUf4 showed the same footage]] to ''his'' mother, who ''laughed'' at the violence. Her reaction disturbed him.
** This isn't a one-off. DICE struggled to get ''VideoGame/Battlefield1'' approved because EA executives [[ItWillNeverCatchOn weren't convinced that kids would be familiar with]] UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Never mind the fact [[JustAKid this is an utterly insulting reason]] - like ''Franchise/DeadSpace'', the ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'' franchise has been consistently rated M, so it makes no sense to market to ''children''.
* ''VideoGame/TheIdolmasterDearlyStars'' was prominently promoted in Magazine/{{Nakayoshi}}. Though [=iM@S=] had a mostly male fanbase at the time, it did make sense to try and broaden the audience since the series has many elements that appeal to girls and this was the first game that allowed you to play as a female idol instead of a male producer. Thing is, Nakayoshi is aimed at elementary school girls (at least at the time, it's had a slightly older shift since), and ''Dearly Stars'' is rated CERO C for ages 15 and up, meaning the game is inappropriate for that demographic. Some fans thought ''Magazine/HanaToYume'' would have been a better choice.
* ''VideoGame/{{IMGCM}}'': Since this is a MagicalGirl game [[HGame aimed at adults]], Studio MGCM themselves also promote some giveaway and collaboration merchandise that is mostly aimed outside that demographic:
** The Dakimakura pillow of Tobio's bald middle aged AlternateSelf (which can be flipped over to the handsome main universe version on the other side), that could only be obtained by posting the hidden bald Tobio during ad campaigns in November 2020. Something that women want to have.
** A collaboration with Dyson (a brand of vacuum cleaners): one lucky winner will be given a vacuum cleaner which is Seira's (one of the magical heroines) magical weapon.
** A collaboration with Onkyo earphones: a pair of special earphones with the words and UI voices of Kaori Tomonaga (one of the magical heroines).
* While the ''VideoGame/{{Klonoa}}'' series hasn't seen much marketing outside of Japan, [[https://imgur.com/gallery/rNaoepp one US magazine ad for the first game]] features a man impressing a woman by telling her [[UnusualEuphemism he has "Klonoa"]] (presumably referring to the game.) This is a kid-friendly game with an "E" rating (despite its heavy emotional beats and SuddenDownerEnding), so the ad is definitely an attempt at appealing to adults.
** And when the Wii remake of said first game came out, some US copies came with a coupon for a free taco at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahoo%27s_Fish_Taco Wahoo's]], probably as a play on the title character's catchphrase. If you don't live near a Wahoo's location, you'll understand why this example is on here.
* There was a strange attempt in the mid-90s to make the ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' franchise more kid-friendly (without changing the content of the games). This included [[Film/MortalKombatTheMovie the original movie]], the cartoon show, and a series of live performances, all which focus more on the martial arts aspect rather than the killing aspect. It didn't work out so well, and after [[Film/MortalKombatAnnihilation the second movie]] bombed they went back to promoting the RatedMForManly. Quite ironic in retrospect, what with ''VideoGame/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse''... which backfired enough for the series to revert to normal come [[VideoGame/MortalKombat9 the next game]].
** ''Mortal Kombat'' has a SaturdayMorningCartoon, ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatDefendersOfTheRealm''. Let us repeat that: The game that is almost single-handedly responsible for rating systems and the need to keep adult games away from kids got a Saturday morning cartoon. Granted, the content is heavily {{Bowdlerize}}d, but ''still''.
* The ''WesternAnimation/StreetFighter'' cartoon is a somewhat lighter version of the trope (coincidentally, it often played in a block with ''Defenders of the Realm''). True, the animated styling and lack of horrible mutilations make the games less family-unfriendly, but there's no "world tournament" any more and they're rather inconsistent about any backstory involving [[YouKilledMyFather murder]], [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge revenge]], terrorism, [[GreyAndGrayMorality good guys fighting good guys over clashing ideals]] or the like, typically diluting it down to "The good guys all work for one group, the bad guys all work for Bison." So ''Franchise/GIJoe'', only with the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' characters, and a bit less of a stranglehold on NeverSayDie... And they still had trouble making THAT concept work. At least, not until [[GrowingTheBeard the second season]], but by then it was too late.
* UsefulNotes/GameBoy shower gel, in a black, brick-like container modeled after the original Game Boy. The A and B buttons work for a mini-pinball game in the 'screen'.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' shampoo. As David Letterman put it, "This will go great with my VideoGame/MsPacMan cologne!"
** ''Mario Bros.'' cologne was marketed in certain countries. [[http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/nes/39.php See for yourself.]]
** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Eau de Cloud]]. Square-Enix markets it as a [[InsistentTerminology 'unisex perfume']]. They're not fooling anyone. Sure, Cloud ''does'' wear perfume in the game, but it's [[WholesomeCrossdresser distinctly not unisex]].
** There's also ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' cologne as well. Because enormous scaly beasts absolutely evoke pleasant scents.
* You're a company that sells string cheese. One day, you decide to offer free PC CD games in with your cheese. Sound plan. What do you decide to offer? A platform game with a cute mouse? OK then. ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'', a cult classic set in a futuristic semi-dystopia where a lone rogue reporter is the only hope of saving a planet from an evil empire by exposing their inhumane acts in order to cause the populace to revolt? Yeah, the game [[MainstreamObscurity sold]] ''[[AcclaimedFlop that]]'' [[CultClassic poorly]].
** This was likely the same reason why ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'' download codes were once offered with Braun ''electric razors''.
* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' bop bag. Perfect for those who hate Pokémon.
** It gets even stranger, as explained in [[http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/articles/14-bizarre-pikachu-products this article.]] The DS and umbrella make sense, with the popularity of the games and anime, but the ''toilet paper roll'', ''maxi pads and condoms'' are way too strange.
*** The surgical masks might seem like this, but [[UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic even before 2020]] surgical masks are worn in Japan by almost everyone fairly often. It's not too rare to go to school and see at least half your class with a mask. The pads, well, there has been at least one Tumblr post hoping for something like that. "I can get through this day! I have dinosaurs in my pants!" (Or, in this case, Pokémon). Remember that most girls are still kids (12-ish is fairly common) when they get their first period, and that Pokémon in particular has a huge PeripheryDemographic of adults.
** [[http://cheezburger.com/6819053824 Pokémon toilet paper]]. Mud Sport indeed...
** ''Pokémon'' [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/File:PokemonXRayMobile.png X-ray machines]].
** For Halloween 2019, [[https://kotaku.com/i-have-several-issues-with-this-years-halloween-pokemon-1838100920 this]] line-up of plushies, which includes such oddities as Charmander dressed as a Cubone (which gives disturbing implications because of Cubone either wearing its dead mother's skull or a skull in honor of its dead mother) and Pikachu dressing as a Mimikyu (which is odd, because Mimikyu’s whole thing is that it dresses up like Pikachu to hide its [[BrownNote horrifying body]] and make friends, so Pikachu is wearing a costume of a costume of itself).
* There was an infamous incident in 2010 when Sears was selling pillows and clocks and such printed with one ''very'' NSFW [[RuleThirtyFour fanart]] involving ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' characters King Dedede and Waddle Dee on their website. This was likely caused by a faulty algorithm and they eventually removed all items after being informed, but by then it was too late.
* Creator/SNKPlaymore has made numerous ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' dating sims, in both galge and otome game varieties.
* ''Franchise/AngryBirds'':
** ''Angry Birds Space'' has [[http://www.amazon.com/Angry-Birds-Space-Colors-Board/dp/9522760250 board books for babies]]. Babies aren't the target audience for ''Angry Birds'' anyway, and no one would buy these books for babies.
** They also have Angry Birds [[http://www.costumecraze.com/BIRDS12.html baby costumes.]] It ''is'' a casual game, so it's not implausible...
** There are egg-shaped confectioneries branded after ''Angry Birds'', despite the game's premise being that the birds are out for the blood of anyone who touches their eggs.
** There were officially licensed ''Angry Birds'' Huggies sold in Malaysia and Vietnam.
* At one point, the US Air Force sponsored a free, downloadable version of ''[[VideoGame/Area51FPS Area 51]]''.
* ''VideoGame/{{NieR}}'''s marketing made the game look like a cheap western action game meant to appeal to fans of franchises like ''God of War''. In reality, it is a melancholic action-JRPG meant for an older audience, made by the same people responsible for ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}''. Creator/YokoTaro himself, the game's director, even admits that the people playing his games would most likely be fans of games like ''VideoGame/{{Tales|Series}}'' and ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}''. This attempt to capture a broader western audience instead of appealing to the JRPG fanbase may have been a contributing factor to the game's poor sales.
* Publisher Creator/DeepSilver's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YngbHOz--oc "Masterclass" trailer]] for ''VideoGame/MightyNo9'', a SpiritualSuccessor to ''VideoGame/{{Mega Man|Classic}}'', has a TotallyRadical 90s-flavored narrator who, near the end, makes a TakeThat joke towards anime fans, who make up much of the series' audience. This is one of many reasons the trailer [[https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/05/the-new-mighty-no-9-trailer-is-weirdly-condescendi.html bombed]] among gamers and journalists alike.
* [[http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7bk0pNELW1r2hwifo1_1280.jpg This]] [[Franchise/TombRaider Lara Croft]] memory card is rather infamous for how weird it looks.
* ''VideoGame/Injustice2'' had a limited tie-in released around the same time as ''Film/WonderWoman2017'' that allowed players to use Gal Gadot likeness as a skin. Many players found it jarring considering that Wonder Woman in that game is a [[FallenHero brutal and ruthless]] DarkActionGirl and nothing like the AllLovingHero from the movie, as well as one of the [[TheScrappy most disliked portrayals of the character]] since ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}''.
* Creator/{{SEGA}} has had a few marketing oddities over the years:
** '' SEGA Slots'' is a simulated gambling app specifically intended for adults, yet it features slot games themed after family-friendly franchises, such as ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMonkeyBall''.
** They once aired an Creator/AdultSwim [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qip7BstpfUE commercial]] for the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' Website/YouTube channel.
** The ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' tie-in at Hooter's. Which was announced via several Hooters waitresses suddenly appearing at what had previously been a relatively normal event, and dancing to music from the game as the promotion was announced. The restaurants themselves had Sonic-themed drinks available, were decorated with Sonic merch and standees, and gave out coasters to commemorate the bizarre occasion.
* There are [[https://gosutoys.com/?s=energy+drink&post_type=product licensed energy drinks branded after]] kid-friendly video game properties, such as ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'', ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'', and ''VideoGame/PacMan''. Despite appearing to be like soda due to yummy fruit-flavored taste, let's remember energy drinks are health hazard for kids and those who exceed moderation.
** The [[https://gfuel.com/blogs/news/sonic-the-hedgehog-energy-drink G Fuel collaboration with Sonic]] could count as well. Though G Fuel is said to be safer than other energy drinks, G Fuel is labeled to only be recommended for those 18 or older and thus is marketed to that age range, [[https://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/04/08/plymouth-boy-energy-school-bus-gfuel-sick/ as a G Fuel representative clarified during an incident where a boy fell ill due to unknowingly being given G Fuel by his friend]]. As a result, many G Fuel tie-ins are with media personalities ''not'' targeted to children. It gets more confusing when a promotional images has Sonic, a ''15'' year old, holding a can of ''Sonic''-branded G Fuel in his hand.
* It's common to see ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' merchandise lumped in with children's properties in children's clothing or toy sections. ''Five Nights at Freddy's'' is a horror-themed game series intended for teens and adults; some brave kids ''do'' like it, but they're a PeripheryDemographic at most.
%% * [[https://kotaku.com/this-kirby-gan-oh-goodness-1827310878 This]] unintentionally terrifying ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' fan.
* ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'''s advertising in North America centred around the bizarre tagline of "This game stinks!", using special scratch-and-sniff promotional ads. However the game itself, while certainly [[QuirkyWork unusual]], isn't centred around [[GrossoutShow gross-out humour]] at all. On top of this, the tagline made the ads sound like an example of OurProductSucks and greatly backfired, which is speculated to have contributed to the game's low sales in the US (and indirectly why it wasn't exported to Europe at all).
* ''VideoGame/BangDreamGirlsBandParty'' [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2020-03-20/bang-dream-game-adds-viral-baby-shark-song-for-limited-time/.157712 collaborated with]] Creator/{{Pinkfong}}'s ''Baby Shark'', when the target audience for the latter is much younger than that of ''[=BanG=] Dream''. And it's not like there's a PeripheryDemographic for the song. In fact, [[PeripheryHatedom quite the opposite]]. The reason why this happened? People jokingly stated they wanted to see "Baby Shark" as a song in the game in a survey.... This is why you don't put joke answers in surveys.
* Despite having "''X2''" in the title, using promo photos of Creator/HughJackman as Wolverine, and being released as a cash grab for the film, ''VideoGame/X2WolverinesRevenge'' has nothing to do with ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', instead drawing on the comics and featuring Creator/MarkHamill as the voice of Wolverine. In fact, the only thing from the film it uses is the film costume -- as an alternate costume, the default being Wolvie's outfit from ''ComicBook/NewXMen''.
* The DS game ''Jam Sessions'', the spiritual predecessor to [[Creator/{{Ubisoft}} the publisher's]] own ''Videogame/{{Rocksmith}}'', likely would have fallen into obscurity if it weren't for the infamous ads that got released in Australia. [[https://youtu.be/eLvrKNq362k One of them]] features a kid [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes shouting]] uncensored {{Cluster F Bomb}}s at his mother and trashing the cake she made him, and [[https://youtu.be/v5M6ZMVzWs4 another]] showed him forcibly making out with and groping [[IncestantAdmirer his own aunt]]. The kicker? ''The game is rated "E10+" for everyone ages 10 and up in the USA, and PEGI 3+ in Europe.''
* ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' has been aimed heavily, but not exclusively, towards children for much of its existence. Most of its merchandise (such as toys and t-shirts) is also aimed at children or general audiences, and its small amount of specifically adult-oriented merch (such as jewelry) is normally sold through third parties. The [[https://www.facebook.com/Neopets/posts/10159235491296005 wine]] [[https://neopetsshop.com/collections/glassware-tumblers glasses]] sold on the official Neopets Shop were immediately met with confusion, particularly since saying the word "wine" on the site itself can get users banned.
* ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'': While [[FanDumb not actually produced by the mod's creators]], one ''The New Order'' fan decided to make [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Sergey Taboritsky]]-themed merch and sell it on Redbubble - [[https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Taboritsky-Troll-Rights-by-franzy14/66870297.FB110 shirts]], [[https://www.redbubble.com/i/mug/Taboritsky-Troll-Rights-by-franzy14/66870297.V33QC travel mugs]], and (believe it or not) [[https://www.redbubble.com/i/clock/Taboritsky-Troll-Rights-by-franzy14/66870297.1X49C clocks]]. Yes, they even have a swastika ''visible in the merch''. Perhaps they just thought it would be funny, but you have to wonder what kind of person would buy it even as a joke.
* In South Korea, there's officially licensed ''VideoGame/AmongUs'' training chopsticks meant to be used by toddlers, which isn't the target audience for said game.
* To promote the release of ''VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater 1 + 2,'' Activision got an ad deal with the WebVideo/GameGrumps to make a Let's Play of the game, with Rubber Ross making a difficult course. Not an odd way to promote the game at all, especially since the video came out while Arin was playing Ross's custom-made ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker2'' course world. Problem is, Activision seemingly didn't understand that a major appeal of the Grumps' humor is Arin's tendency towards {{Cluster F Bomb}}s, especially when playing difficult courses (i.e. the ''Mario Maker'' series) or calling out bad games, while the Grumps seemingly didn't know that Activision wanted a G-rated video, so there's a ''lot'' of censored swearing in the video. They also censored references to non-Activison brands, removing another popular element of the Grumps' videos, the reference humor. As a result, Grumps fans were more angry with Activision for the heavy censorship than they were interested in the ''Tony Hawk'' game.
* ''Videogame/TombRaiderAnniversary'' had a campaign aimed fully at players completely new to the entire franchise, even if by default a VideoGameRemake should also cater to old fans who'd want to see how the game they loved was updated (even if one year too late to the tenth anniversary of ''Videogame/TombRaiderI''... and with a few of the levels streamlined in their redesign). Add that it was fairly underpromoted compared to the preceding reboot ''Videogame/TombRaiderLegend'', and ''Anniversary'' became the lowest-selling title of the series.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* Creator/AksysGames has caught some flack by playing down or omitting the romance elements in marketing for their [[OtomeGame otome titles]], in hopes of appealing to a broader audience. This only ended up angering both the otome fans that make up the bulk of buyers for these games who felt that Aksys thought their own target audience didn't matter enough to market towards, and non-otome fans who felt that that were completely mislead into thinking the games were something that they're not.
* There are officially licensed ''VisualNovel/{{Hakuouki}}'' {{Fundoshi}}.
* One [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBGu0VqosOw Japanese commerical]] for the UsefulNotes/WiiWare ports of the ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' trilogy features a family of three, including a young child, happily playing through them. These are extremely text-heavy games about [[AlwaysMurder murder trials]]. Even considering [[ValuesDissonance Japan's looser standards on what's acceptable for children]], it's an odd thing to market to families -- most children are unlikely to be interested in games starring a lawyer and focused mainly on courtroom proceedings.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* This Website/{{Cracked}} [[http://www.cracked.com/pictofacts-954-24-wildly-inappropriate-official-movie-tie-in-products/ article]] includes many different baffling movie tie-in products.
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': When Creator/RoosterTeeth released new merch in August 2019, one new [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EBT95SBX4AAiypu.jpg t-shirt]] featured the characters Blake and Adam with the text "Lovers' Quarrel". Fans immediately objected to this, as Blake is an [[DomesticAbuse abuse survivor]]; Adam is her PsychoExBoyfriend whose obsession with possessing or destroying her is portrayed as creepy and evil. Given the reaction, and the fact that the show markets itself as female empowerment, Rooster Teeth pulled the t-shirt and issued an apology a few hours after first releasing it.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' has occasionally run into marketing oddities.
** One such thing that has gained infamy is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL4y0omup3w these two]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cVOp3Y5O5Q Quaker Oats ads]] starring him. Why? Because the premise involves Popeye [[OutOfCharacterMoment casually ditching]] his [[TrademarkFavoriteFood spinach]], in favor of eating a batch of Quaker Oatmeal to get a power boost and mop the floor with Bluto. It doesn't help that because Popeye uses brute force to deal with Bluto, it drew objections from the pacifist Society of Friends, or "Quakers" (who have no connection to Quaker Oats, but still didn't appreciate the name of their movement being associated with violent acts), which caused the ad to be pulled.[[note]] Interestingly, the Quakers also took issue with Olive Oyle's demure and [[ExtremeDoormat submissive]] personality, being longtime supporters of [[UsefulNotes/{{Feminism}} women's rights]].[[/note]]
** The mid to late '30's Popeye radio show actually predates the Quaker Oats fiasco, minus the bad PR but still glossing over Popeye's most well known trademark; specifically, the show regularly shills Wheatena cereal over Popeye's spinach, even incorporating the cereal into Popeye's theme song for the show.
** A tinfoil poster exists of Popeye with the words "No Smoking" on it; while it has noble intentions, it blatantly overlooks that one of Popeye's character trademarks is that he smokes a corn-cob pipe (which is predictably absent from the poster).
** While Popeye promoting foods like canned spinach is a no-brainer, one must note the oddity of combining Popeye's love of spinach with a harmless, but still bizarre, curiosity; Popeye brand spinach gum -- shredded bubble gum that looks like spinach.
** This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCcYyB3OSQc Minute Maid ad]] has also gained infamy among fans, largely for the unintentional humor of it portraying Popeye and Bluto as downright [[PlatonicWritingRomanticReading affectionate towards each other]].
** This [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mJ4lc_Q9Q6k/SjUfWzIcUGI/AAAAAAAAfIw/rSbYzNlNiys/s1600-h/0popeyecareers.jpg bizarre comic]] of Popeye promoting jobs in ''communication fields''; the subject matter scarcely relates to Popeye in the first place, and it would probably fly over the heads or interest of kids -- although it's probably just a standard educational comic with [[WolverinePublicity Popeye tossed in to catch their attention.]]
* One local Creator/{{PBS Kids}} station used ''Tank!'' from ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mroClT0YEQ in a promotion]]. It's not at all inappropriate for kids like its source material, due to being an instrumental song, and it's likely a fan working at the station snuck it in as ParentalBonus but... It's still a very bizarre choice of music for something like that, and sort of surreal to watch.
** They have also used an instrumental of "Film/ThatThingYouDo" in [[https://youtu.be/XSeV7bpGUJQ a promo]] for ''WesternAnimation/WordWorld''. While not really kid-unfriendly (and, again, it was the instrumental version), it's a very strange music choice, even in the context of the show.
** Using age-inappropriate music in promos for shows is actually not an uncommon practice for PBS Kids. To them, if a song has a catchy and fitting melody, then it can be used in a show promo, regardless of what inappropriate lyrical content the song may contain. For example, one of the PBS Kids Go! "game" idents used "Daddy Pop" by Music/{{Prince}}, which contains the lyric "Steady wishin' [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything he could sleep in your bed]]" right in the first verse.
* A MassiveMultiplayerCrossover [[http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-Didj-Custom-Learning-Nicktoon/dp/B00134PM64 edutainment game]]... featuring ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim''. While technically a kids' show, it's also an infamously dark BlackComedy series, so its prominent inclusion in a game which teaches math to 7-year-olds is rather strange.
* More a case of misconceived marketing, the ''[[WesternAnimation/TheShnookumsAndMeatFunnyCartoonShow Schnookums and Meat]]'' canned pasta had this remarkable disclaimer on the label: "Meat is a character developed by Buena Vista Television. THERE IS NO MEAT IN THIS PRODUCT." This leads to some interesting FridgeLogic: Shouldn't they have been more concerned with assuring the customer that the product doesn't contain any "Schnookums"?
* A book of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' Mad Libs. Although there is such a thing as adult Mad Libs, the audience for Mad Libs skews '''much''' younger than the audience for ''American Dad''.
* [[http://www.pingusenglish.my/ There exists an English language school called]] ''WesternAnimation/{{Pingu}}'s English''. While this sounds normal on paper, the issue is that the characters all [[SpeakingSimlish speak in complete gibberish]], so using them for a language school is a bit weird.
* Some merchandise for ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' featured Ren happily and willingly doing the Happy Happy Joy Joy dance with Stimpy. In the episode where this comes from, "Stimpy's Invention", Ren is forced to do the dance because of Stimpy's Happy Helmet and this is the last straw that drives Ren to remove the helmet.
** The song was once used by Sara Lee foods in a series of commercials to promote [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8VfdnrW2yc "The Joy of Eating"]]. It's a rather odd choice, especially when one considers the song's original context in the show.
* The classic ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' special ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'', in its original broadcast, included copious ProductPlacement for Coca-Cola. As anyone who's ever seen the special (and that's a ''lot'' of people) would know, ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' is very much anti-commercialization.
** And these days the special itself gets merchandise every holiday season as part of the larger merchandising of the characters -- including the ''official'' [[http://www.amazon.com/Charlie-Brown-Christmas-Blanket-Non-Musical/dp/B001MMSWGO Charlie Brown Christmas Tree]]!
* Creator/AdultSwim sells officially licensed ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kippah yarmulkes]]. There's also an officially licensed body pillow of Mr. Poopybutthole, and Pickle Rick... pickles. Yes, as in the food. A single pickle in a pouch.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' was [[https://imgur.com/a/IUFAR6K adapted into a play intended for middle school curriculums]]. Though it's much less overtly inappropriate than most other adult cartoons, and they at least had the foresight to pick an episode focusing on Bobby, ''King of the Hill'' is certainly not the kind of show that has crossover appeal on the level of (for example) ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', so it's a confusing if not exactly eyebrow-raising choice.
* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' themed perfume exists. This might seem fine (it could be a good way to get young boys to be clean), until you notice that [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Ben10/comments/sy7vmt/maybe_not_the_best_choice_of_alien_to_use_for/ the label on the bottle prominently features Stinkfly]], Ben's most stinky alien transformation in the show, and certainly one you won't associate with clean. The box also features Swampfire, another one of Ben's stinkiest aliens.
* Back in the late 1990s-early 2000s, Disney sold a lighter with the main six from ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' on it. Granted, the show has a HUGE PeripheryDemographic, but it's still a piece of merchandise you wouldn't buy for the target audience.
* Here's a weird product from ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'': [[http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTAwWDUwMA==/$(KGrHqFHJDcE63Z(jjCLBO3MQ932ug~~60_35.JPG A Thomas The Tank Engine toddler urinal.]] Justified, since most kids who watch Thomas are toddlers, but still, not many parents use toddler urinals.
* ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'':
** TheMerch includes [[http://mlparena.com/mlp/index.php/topic,311357.0.html a]] [[https://derpibooru.org/images/113165 T]]-[[http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/10/walmart-releases-brony-shirt-complete.html shirt]] that features strangely OffModel Generation 1 ponies but mentions Generation 4's PeripheryDemographic, leaving both generations' fans confused.
** In general, when it comes to the merch, it can be a bit confusing which things are supposed to be targeted towards the primary demographic of preteen girls and which things are aimed at older fans. This occasionally results in oddities like adult sized boxer shorts ending up on shelves next to toys intended for nine-year-old girls. A general rule of thumb is that the kid-aimed products have heavily pink and purple packaging (or ''occasionally'' blue and purple), whereas adult-aimed products tend to downplay the bright colors and put them on a black background.
** The material aimed at the target demographic of children tends to ''intensely'' play up the girliness of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' - a series which, although still traditionally feminine, tends to shun the idea of playing such things completely straight. This has had weird results like all of Princess Celestia's earlier toys being pink instead of white, a talking Nightmare Moon doll which says [[OutOfCharacter bizarrely non-evil]] things like "My wings are so pretty!", and an absurd amount of dress-up toy sets involving Rainbow Dash (who in the show is a [[TomboyWithAGirlyStreak largely tomboyish]] jock who is mostly disinterested in fashion). They also did a set based around fashion at one point, but [[PinkProductPloy for some reason chose Pinkie Pie]] as its mascot rather than [[TheFashionista Rarity]].
** [[http://img.memerial.net/memerial.net/381/my-little-pony.jpg My Little Pony-branded medwurst]]. An implicitly vegetarian cartoon horse has no business advertising meat!
** Applejack, who is very heavily implied (and as of "The Perfect Pear", [[NeverSayDie one D word]] shy of outright stated) to have deceased parents, has inexplicably appeared in a [[https://trixiebooru.org/1436573 Mother's Day card]].
** Part of the ''My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'' merchandise is the [[http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/Category:Riding_Along_Ponies Riding Along Ponies]]. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both have wings and can fly, so (not being physically disabled like Scootaloo) it may seem like they have no need for scooters. However, Fluttershy isn't that confident in her flying abilities, so for her its more FridgeBrilliance.
* In 2015, the Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} offshoot [[Creator/NickRewind The Splat]] tried to hop on a popular meme with an ad that boasted that "Saturdays are all about Splat and Chill", inspired by the "Netflix and Chill" meme. Apparently, nobody in their marketing department knew that the word "Chill" in that context was a euphemism for "[[IntercourseWithYou have sex]]". As one Tumblr user put it, "No, Nickelodeon, I'm not going to fuck while watching ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}''."
** Some rather... questionable Nicktoons tie-in items have popped up in stores such as Spencer's and Hot Topic, in an apparent effort at marketing to nostalgic adults who watched the shows as kids. While some shows, in particular ''WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy'' and ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' have always had a certain degree of adult appeal to them, something just feels wrong about seeing the likenesses of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' characters on items like [[https://www.spencersonline.com/product/90-s-nickelodeon-shot-glass-1-5-oz-/139287.uts shot glasses]] or [[https://www.amazon.com/ICUP-Nickelodeon-Animated-Legends-Stainless/dp/B071JVG77H liquor flasks]].
** There was a toyline called "WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}: Totally Angelica", which included a video game of the same name. The decision to portray the cartoon's resident mean girl as being cool and likeable is just strange.
* Cartoon Network has used the cast of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' for an anti-bullying campaign (which includes several [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdvKjX4CF44 public service announcements airing on CN]] and posters displayed in schools), despite the main characters of the series often acting like bullies themselves and mocking the idea of ever using the show to teach lessons. Cartoon Network eventually got the message and switched to using characters from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' in their [=PSAs=] instead, thereby averting this trope (as the latter series ''does'' teach lessons, especially about kindness and acceptance).
** ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGoToTheMovies'' has a [[https://twitter.com/NHTSAgov/status/1012446541037035520 campaign]] encouraging parents to find the right size car seat for their children. This seems very odd indeed, being that most of the kids in the target audience of the show would be too old to need one according to the website itself.
* One curious piece of early ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' merchandise was books for ''preschool age'' children featuring Maggie Simpson. The books themselves are perfectly appropriate educational titles for teaching toddlers about things such as animals and shapes. However, basing them on ''The Simpsons'' was a questionable choice, as while the series does ultimately have a wide audience, said audience is still not ''that'' wide, and the show has always been aimed vaguely towards adults.
* Another odd Fox marketing ploy is cross-promoting ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' early in its run on ''Creator/FoxKids'', as "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpmw9azzLDI Fox Kids Heads for the Hills]]" -- featuring such bizarre things as Hank convincing the WesternAnimation/{{Silver Surfer|TheAnimatedSeries}} to switch to a propane-powered surfboard. This was one of the last times Fox primetime and Fox Kids really interacted with each other,[[note]]although it's more due to the series of transactions that ensued when Fox nabbed the NFL rights, leading to many of their new affiliates deciding not to take the block (and push it off onto another station instead)[[/note]] and as a result, cross-promotion became more and more untenable.
** One Saturday Morning block theme was a crossover between ''WesternAnimation/LifeWithLouie'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' that had Louie Anderson waking up in a live-action rendition of the Simpson household.
* When the ''Franchise/CareBears'' franchise was revived during the early 2000s, Grumpy bear was given his own line of merchandise, segregating him from the main ''Care Bears'' line in the process, in an attempt to capitalize on his popularity. The problem is that they believed that Grumpy's popularity was limited to the PeripheryDemographic of ''goths''. By the time ''WesternAnimation/CareBearsAdventuresInCareALot'' premiered, the Grumpy line was retired, and Grumpy was brought back to the mainline ''Care Bears'' merchandise.
* ''WesternAnimation/IronManTheAnimatedSeries'' was released on DVD to cash in on ''Film/IronMan2'' and mentioned Whiplash on the back--despite Mark Scarlotti being a very different character from Ivan Vanko, including being one of the Mandarin's lackeys on the show.
* Disney actually licensed official ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' school supplies like backpacks and notebooks at the show's peak in popularity. It seems fine at first, but becomes surreal when you remember the show takes place during ''summer vacation''.
* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': The bears are also on your ''[[http://art.czongyi.com/2017/huaju_1030/35805.html feminine]] [[https://world.taobao.com/item/548576343155.htm?spm=a21wu.10013406-tw.0.0.2f9e7f55LHLDjH hygiene]]'' packaging. They're only available in China, because apparently ''We Bare Bears'' is ''massively'' [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff popular in Asia]], putting them on the same level of [[MultipleDemographicAppeal crossover appeal]] as Sanrio.
* One piece of tie-in merchandise for the Ruby-Spears ''WesternAnimation/{{Mega Man|RubySpears}}'' cartoon was a small toy bow-and-arrow set... which seems very odd when you consider the fact that both the series itself and [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic the video games that inspired it]] are science fiction works set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, where RidiculouslyHumanRobots are commonplace. And many of said robots have arm-loaded plasma cannons.
* ''WesternAnimation/DinoTrux'' started off airing in Australia on ABC Kids (which was fine), before switching to Creator/ABCMe (also owned by the ABC) for its second season. They thought "If it's by Dreamworks, then it's for older kids!".
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' has plenty of merchandise featuring the show's heroes. The weirdness comes from the fact that the resident AlphaBitch Chloé Bourgeois and her superpowered alter-ego Queen Bee get more merchandise than the generally more heroic major character Nino/Carapace -- even ''after'' [[spoiler:Chloé betrayed the team to Hawk Moth]]. The GirlShowGhetto might be in play here, given that much of the merchandise is aimed at young girls; perhaps the marketing execs thought the female and fashionable Chloé would sell better to that demographic than Nino.
* One Creator/HBOMax ad for ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'' sandwiched the show between the likes of ''Series/SesameStreet'' and ''WesternAnimation/EsmeAndRoy'', but the series is not for preschoolers. It is primarily for teens/young adults, and contains some dark and serious themes and infrequent graphic violence (including a humanoid character being messily ''ripped in half'', albeit with AlienBlood).
* ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' presents [[https://bmj2k.com/2013/02/16/the-treasure-chest-of-terrible-toys-the-justice-jogger/ the Justice Jogger]]. An "overland villain chaser"...for ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'', as in the TropeCodifier for FlyingBrick, as in the ''last'' person on the team that would need such a device.
* ''[[MemeticMutation Learn to code with]] [[WesternAnimation/ElChavoAnimado el Chavo]]''. It is a very strange choice to use El Chavo, a poor orphan boy who has probably never used a computer in his life, for an educational game about coding.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** There's official ''South Park'' shirts for...[[https://www.southparkshop.com/collections/kids-baby people who should really wait a decade and a half before even getting a glimpse of the show.]]
** [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/865002544005775380/1109653754577432646/image0.jpg Here's an official Brazilian ad]] featuring Eric Cartman alongside various Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. characters like WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants and WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer. These may all be characters owned by Creator/ParamountGlobal, but ''South Park'' doesn't air on Nick for very good reasons.
** The mere existence of Towelie merchandise contradicts the fact that he was meant to be too stupid of a character to make any merch out of.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
** The show's advertising and social media latched onto the "Shut up and take my money!" meme from "Attack of the Killer App," particularly the Hulu revival (since Hulu is a pay-per-month streaming service). Just like the fandom, this misses the original joke: Fry is shilling out money for an [[{{iPhony}} eyePhone]] despite the seller outright telling him it's a cheap overpriced phone, just because it's popular -- a TakeThat at the brand-loyalist iPhone culture of the time. Oddly, an Australian KFC campaign used the meme as a slogan to promote its products as well.
** In 2023, to promote a discounted Hulu subscription price, the official Instagram account used an image from "[[Recap/FuturamaS8E1TheImpossibleStream The Impossible Stream]]" of Fry in the stillsuit about to binge-watch every single ''All My Circuits'' episode, with the caption, "Me after I get in on the Hulu Black Friday deal." The conflict of that episode is that Fry watching so much television is a stupid goal, and his friends have to get him out of the stillsuit because binge-watching will ''liquidify his brain.'' The episode is also full of BitingTheHandHumor at Hulu's expense.
** The Arabic dub aired on Spacetoon, one of the most recognizable children's networks in the MENA region. While [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpAHm2_Snd4 it was edited for content]], the show is still ''not'' for kids -- being aimed at adults and containing some often dark and crude themes.
* Cartoon Network Asia posted a ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' Mother's Day card [[https://www.facebook.com/CartoonNetworkAsia/photos/a.483680174986644/5346998671988079 to their Facebook page]]. The imagery on the card is a screenshot of "Storm in the Room" where Steven is interacting with a fake copy of Rose Quartz, his ''dead'' mother who [[DeathByChildbirth died giving birth to him]]. Additionally, that very episode has a scene where Steven rants about the mess his mother left behind that he now has to face, and briefly wonders whether he's the product of a suicide since Rose knew she couldn't survive having a baby ("Did you make me just so that you wouldn't have to deal with all your mistakes?!"); his [[BrokenPedestal thoughts]] regarding her throughout the series are, as he puts it, "complicated". Fans swiftly pointed out that putting Rose on a Mother's Day card was a ''very'' questionable idea.
* During 1986 and 1987, someone at Creator/WarnerBrothers thought it was a good idea to license the character of WesternAnimation/FoghornLeghorn for use in a series of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSDEFcuLBqw commercials]] for UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken.
* Disney Junior once ran a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'' on July 4, 2020 called "Red, White and ''Bluey''". The problem with this promotion stems from the fact that ''Bluey'' is an Australian import, and Independence Day, the holiday on that date, celebrates America's independence from Britain.
* Episodes of ''WesternAnimation/ScaredySquirrel'' can be found on the Treehouse Direct [=YouTube=] channel which primarily has shows aimed at preschoolers. While the book series the show is based on is aimed at that demographic, the TV series is aimed at an older audience more akin to ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''. The Dutch version of that [=YouTube=] channel also has ''WesternAnimation/{{Braceface}}'', which is even LESS preschool-friendly than Scaredy Squirrel.
* There exists ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}'' branded shampoo for kids, which is all fine and dandy...except for the fact that Caillou is bald.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The now-infamous attempt to widen Las Vegas' appeal beyond gamblers in the early 1990s was all about this. After the tropical-themed Mirage casino-hotel revived the conceit of a Vegas trip as a classy proposition, there was a push by the convention authority to appeal to the '''family market''' -- even though those under 21 can't gamble and can't hang around with their elders if they're gambling. So themed hotels like the Excalibur (King Arthur), Luxor (ancient Egypt), MGM Grand (''Film/TheWizardOfOz''), and Treasure Island (pirates) arrived with colorful architecture and family-oriented attractions in addition to the usual casinos, restaurants, and stage shows. But most of those attractions (including the biggest, the MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park) were duds, and adults-only groups and casino-hotel management didn't enjoy dealing with kids. Parents left kids to fend for themselves, causing further problems. Once it was clear Vegas-for-families wasn't workable, most of the hotels moved on, remodeling and becoming more "adult" (for instance, the live pirate battle outside Treasure Island became a battle between skanky "sirens" and buff buccaneers instead of an old-fashioned pirates-vs.-Navy bout -- a shame, because general consensus is that the pirates vs. Navy show was ''much'' better).
* [[http://firsttoknow.com/meat-scented-burger-king-perfume-for-sale/ Burger King cologne]], the "body spray of seduction, with a hint of flame-grilled meat."
* At the Museum of Science and Industry's U-505 exhibit, you can buy a full range of "Rosie the Riveter" projects -- ''oven mitts, spatulas, and dish-towels''. Seems a little counter-productive. Granted, Rosie is popular, and women who don't spend all their time in the kitchen still ''have'' one. It's weapons-grade irony, but understandable.
* Ukraine Finance is now giving out the [[https://ukrainefinanceplatform.com/the-nestor-makhno-prize/ Nestor Makhno Prize for Small Businesses]]. For those unaware, Makhno was an early 20th century anarchist and socialist. Given his views on capitalism, it's doubtful he would be happy being associated with a prize for ''businesses''.
* OlderThanRadio, if you consider military-inspired toys (soldiers, tanks, and so forth). Granted, warfare wasn't ''quite'' as grisly as it is today until around the early twentieth century, but going to war in ''any'' era is certainly no picnic.
** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] for many communist and fascist countries. Totalitarian ideologies quite openly state that they see every boy as a future soldier. Military-themed toys and other content are deliberately used by state propaganda to prepare boys for the conscription, whitewash the image of the army and deliver related tropes such as HeroicSacrifice. There was a slew of Soviet children's books and animation films about how fun and exciting it was to serve in the army.
* For several years, Harlequin published a ''successful'' line of ExtrudedBookProduct romance novels set in the oh-so-romantic world of... [=NASCAR=].[[note]]It seems that Japanese girls do enjoy manga meant for boys regarding fast cars with a hint of romance in them (ie, they're the PeripheryDemographic of the Manga/WanganMidnight and Manga/InitialD mangas). So maybe they may have done market research... in the wrong market.[[/note]]
* An insurance company named Independent Health advertises a policy known as the [[http://www.redshirttreatment.com/ "RedShirt™ Treatment".]] For anyone with a cursory knowledge of ''Franchise/StarTrek'', a RedShirt means that they will often be ''killed off''.
* Some companies have attempted to use September 11th for promotional purposes in the same way that they'd use actual holidays. Needless to say, exploiting such a tragedy for the sake of making money tends to backfire horribly:
** A pretty [[UnfortunateImplications nasty]] example: [[http://www.cbssports.com/golf/eye-on-golf/23573339/golf-course-offers-911-promotion-and-it-is-pretty-awful A golf course had a coupon for a golf discount on 9/11]] [[note]] 9 holes for golfing cost only $9.11.[[/note]] The fact that the name of the golf course is "Tumbledown Trails" makes it even worse.
** Local San Antonio mattress place Miracle Mattress ran a 9/11 promotion, featuring a cheaply-made ad of an employee (later confirmed to be the daughter of the store's owner) pushing over some customers and knocking over two stacks of mattresses that (vaguely) resembled the Twin Towers (because they were holding a "Twin Tower sale"). The controversy quickly killed the ad and very nearly brought the company down with it.
** In a simiar vein, Israelis take their national remembrance days[[note]]One for the Holocaust, and another a week later - and also one day before Israel's Independence /Day - for war casualties and terror victims[[/note]] much more seriously than Americans do, and are predisposed to perceive American Memorial Day promotions as just as tasteless as Americans perceive 9/11 promotions.
*** People in Commonwealth countries (the “CANZUK” countries) also take their Remembrance Day (on the American Veterans Day) very seriously, and would also consider American Memorial Day promotions to be tasteless.
* [[https://www.ohiohistory.org/learn/education/resource-roundup/november-2019-(1)/billy-possum Billy Possum]], a stuffed animal toy created based on US President William Howard Taft's...enjoyment of a possum dinner. The toy was intended to be a follow-up to the still phenomenally popular Teddy Bear, and was predictably a flop.
* In 2019, Microsoft introduced a new version of its ergonomic keyboard that included an emoji key. Given that the keyboard is popular in professional settings where emoji use is often discouraged, many saw this as a questionable move.
* Trojan, full stop. Nothing says "protection" like naming your brand of condoms after a people infamous for ''letting in something they shouldn't have'', which caused the fall of their city-state.
* One of Hershey's many chocolate products is a hollow milk chocolate apple, usually marketed as a gift (for Valentine's Day or teachers). Innocuous enough on its own, but someone at the design department thought it would be a good idea to have it be wrapped in gold foil -- golden apples are famously associated with the AppleOfDiscord that kicked off Literature/TheTrojanCycle. Naturally, [[https://storygirl000.tumblr.com/post/183000363826/dovewithscales-fedini-courfeyclause people had fun with this.]]
* Ben and Jerry’s Netflix-themed ice cream is given the name of "Netflix and Chill’d." Either this is intentual innuendo, or the marketing people didn’t do their research on the term, but either way, it is very strange to see when taking into account what “chill” [[IntercoursewithYou means in this context...]]
* The American folk song "M.T.A." is all about a man named Charlie who was forced to ride the Boston subways forever because he couldn't pay his fares to get off. Being as popular as it was, "M.T.A." was later used as the inspiration for imagery of the MBTA's ticketing system, all adorned with pictures of Charlie happily riding the trains he can never escape from. It's a bit concerning when the face of your business is a guy actively screwed over by a sudden rule change.
[[/folder]]

!!Parodies of This Phenomenon

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'' has in-universe examples, with everything from dolls to panties featuring the titular girls' likenesses. Panty ReallyGetsAround on the show and jumps at the chance to get her name on a product, and Stocking has a SugarAndIcePersonality and questions all the baubles that get made of her. Knowing Gainax's casual attitude towards licensing, it might be a big in-joke.
* One official piece of ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'' merch parodies the phenomenon with its packaging, a [[https://i.imgur.com/3NhFaua.jpg doll]] of Lain with bright pink kawaii packaging reminiscent of ''Toys/LiccaChan'' or something else you'd find in the pink aisle.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* One of the ''ComicBook/AmbushBug'' mini-series has a brief appearance from a "[[Comicbook/{{Batgirl2009}} Stephanie Brown]] Lil' Dickens Power Tool Playkit", [[spoiler: meant as a nod to the heroine's brutal torture and death at the hands of Black Mask]]. The box even has an image of Stephanie recoiling in terror.
* Apparently in the DC Universe, Comicbook/TheJoker is a popular costume choice for young trick-or-treaters, despite the fact that in-universe, he's a known mass murderer. Commissioner Gordon is understandably upset when he sees his son dressed up in one of the aforementioned costumes.
* As of ''Comicbook/DCRebirth'', there's a chain of Batman-themed fast food restaurants, with items named after Batman's various allies and rogues. Bruce Wayne is not pleased to find out about it:
-->'''Cashier:''' Do you want to Jokerize those fries?\\
'''Duke Thomas:''' Be nice, Bruce.\\
'''Bruce Wayne:''' "Jokerize"?\\
'''Cashier:''' It's like, special seasoning they put on it. But it's, like, white and red and, y' know... green.\\
'''Bruce Wayne:''' The Joker is a homicidal maniac. An agent of pure chaos. He wants to kill us all just so he can laugh over our graves.\\
'''Cashier:''' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint So, uh, you DON'T want us to Jokerize your fries?]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'':
** Ozymandias has an action figure line planned using the main characters, all of whom are {{deconstruct|ion}}ed superheroes, at best antiheroes and at worst mass-murdering psychopaths. However, official ones were released as a [[Film/{{Watchmen}} movie]] tie in -- it's not clear whether this is tongue-in-cheek or whether they're just milking all they can out of it.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jeslfkbmcE This fan video]] claims to be an unaired '80s ad for an Ozymandias action figure.
** Some of the other real life tie-in movie products include Nite Owl-themed coffee, lunchboxes and blue condoms with the tagline: "We're society's only protection!". [[http://www.watchmencomicmovie.com/021609-watchmen-movie-dr-manhattan-condom.php No joke]].
** ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has done this several times, but the best is Milhouse asking Creator/AlanMoore to autograph his ''Watchmen [[SpinoffBabies Babies]] in: V for Vacation'' DVD.
** ''Watchmen'' seems like a popular target for these parodies, possibly because of Creator/AlanMoore's famous loathing of such cash-in products. To wit, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w&feature=channel_page Saturday Morning Watchmen]]''.
* A 3-part DenserAndWackier story from the original ''ComicBook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}'' comic features Raphael getting abducted by two aliens. After learning his status as a hero, the two excitedly name off all the potential TMNT merchandising they could profit off, such as T-shirts, video games... and [[BreadMilkEggsSquick condoms]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* ''ComicStrip/MadamAndEve'' spoofed this trope with the [[http://www.madamandeve.co.za/cartoons/me002725.gif Nelson Mandela miniature golf course.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', after the title character defeats the Hydra he becomes insanely popular, making a fortune licensing his image and namesake out to numerous products including sports drinks, vases, sandals and action figures.
* From ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRQ_gjeFMRA "Spidey Bells, Spidey Bells, swingin' through Midtown!"]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty Coloring & Activity Book'' exists seemingly just to have a laugh at the concept. Instead of being watered down and safe for kids, it's as raunchy as the movie itself--even including a coloring page based on the infamous "food orgy."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' milks this trope for every joke it can get, including Film/{{Spaceballs}} the Bedsheets, Film/{{Spaceballs}} the Toilet Paper, and, of course, Film/{{Spaceballs}} [[MemeticMutation da]] {{F|unetikAksent}}lametrowah! ("The kids ''love'' that one...") The gag even extends to home video releases, with the VHS case being branded "Film/{{Spaceballs}} the Home Video" and the DVD menu opening with, well, guess.
** Thing is, though, Mel Brooks actually agreed for there to be very limited merchandising of the film, as per a request by Creator/GeorgeLucas. So, this may have been an intentional TakeThat.
* ''Film/RockyIII'' has Rocky do all sorts of endorsements and product placement while he is reigning heavyweight champ, from the logical (Wheaties, Rocky-brand boxing gloves) to the more absurd (Rocky-brand dinner plates). Paulie doesn't like it one bit and destroys a Rocky-themed pinball machine.
** The strange thing is, an actual ''Rocky'' [[Pinball/{{Rocky}} pinball machine]] was made ''for'' the movie, making the message a little warped.
* The {{Mockumentary}} ''The Compleat Al'' has a scene where Music/WeirdAlYankovic is presented with such ridiculous licensed merchandise as dress up kits and (to his horror) edible underwear.
* A deleted scene from ''Best in Show'' has Gerry Fleck, who has a birth defect of two left feet, endorsing a shoe line made entirely of left shoes. They end with an expert in the field who says "Take it from a professional: these shoes are really different."
** Another Christopher Guest film, ''Waiting for Guffman'', has a scene where Corky St. Clair shows off his collection of odd movie merchandise, including a ''Remains of the Day'' lunchbox and ''My Dinner with Andre'' action figures.
* When asked by a reporter if there will be action figures based on ''Film/TheExpendables'', Sylvester Stallone replied that there will be figures that don't move, just ''float face down in the water'', and that kids will love it. Hot Toys are actually going to do action figures based on the film, but as with most Hot Toys collectibles, they will most likely be high-end, expensive products that kids won't find fun.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheRelic'' ends with various attempts to exploit the stories of the Museum Beast with things like cartoons and action figures ending in failure. The Museum Beast was a monster which ate people's brains and (in the novel) brutally killed ''children'', so this is not surprising.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* An episode of ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' mentions Dorothy's previous less than amazing Christmases. She mentions one year, she received soap in the shape of the [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Seven Dwarfs]]. When Blanche asked her about it, Dorothy says, "What kid wants to play with soap? And after a couple of baths, they looked like Seven Suppositories."
** In another episode, Sophia mentions her son Phil would frequently send her a nativity scene every Christmas... made out of cheddar cheese. She then says that her Catholic guilt means she can't spread a Wise Man on a Ritz cracker.
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' has an ad for ''Film/{{Philadelphia}}'' action figures and a video game, made by a company that apparently just doesn't care because it [[http://bcmoney-mobiletv.com/view/1441/SNL%20-%20Philadelphia%20Action%20Figures/ warps the whole thing into a sci-fi/fantasy concept]]. There's also an ad for a fast food joint, KCF Shredders (they specialize in an "extreme" foodstuff consisting of nothing but lettuce and mayonnaise in a bag), that notes their kids' meals currently have ''How Stella Got Her Groove Back'' toys.
* In the ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "There All the Honor Lies", Earthforce opens a gift shop in the station with Babylon 5 merchandise: clothing, model ships, [[RubberForeheadAliens space alien masks]], [[InvertedTrope human masks (for space aliens!)]], [[spoiler:Londo Mollari dolls]], [[spoiler:John Sheridan]] "Bear-B-Lon 5" teddy bears; the works. None of the people portrayed like what they see. The teddy bear was an actual gift to Creator/JMichaelStraczynski from Creator/PeterDavid. It later showed up on ''Series/SpaceCases'', with the cast wondering [[ThrownOutTheAirlock who would throw something like that away...]]
* ''Series/TheChasersWarOnEverything'' did a stunt where they tried to sell ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}''-branded beer and sex toys to kids, just to see what people would be willing to buy for their children if it had the ''Shrek'' logo on it. They managed to sell Shrek-brand heroin (of course the heroin wasn't actually heroin, but no one needed to know that) -- "You might want your mum to carry it for you."
* In the ''Series/{{Jessie}}'' episode "Say Yes to the Messy Dress", Zuri cranks out a bunch of absolutely ridiculous Kitty Couture merchandise, including kitty litter, a board game, a burger griller, a backscratcher, and a trophy. Emma/Kitty Couture herself is not pleased.
* ''Series/MadTV'' has a sketch about an incredibly violent ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' board game marketed to a nuclear family, and they all enjoy themselves playing murderous criminals shooting each other up in gang wars, snorting fake cocaine, and getting makeshift prison tattoos. They also have ''Grand Theft Auto'' as a ''Price Is Right''-meets-''Wheel Of Fortune'' type game show. ''[=MADtv=]'' also parodies this with movies such as ''Titanic'' and ''The Dark Knight'' having tie-in kids' meal toys.
* The WB's short-lived sketch show ''Hype'' had a gag in which ''American Beauty'' toys are sold as kids' meals in a [=McDonalds=]-esque fast food joint).
* ''Series/FullHouse'' had a scene at a supermarket that finds Jesse chiding Michelle over wanting a certain cereal just because it has a cartoon character on the box...and then getting excited over the prospect of [[Music/ElvisPresley Elvis Peanut Butter]]. He has trouble choosing between the smooth and "Hunka-Hunka Chunka" varieties.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/LarcEnCiel made a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpJsHeV5sXA parody cat food]] commercial, [[{{Squick}} which includes the band members eating the cat food]]. It's actually meant to be a reference to L'arcan, a piece of swag they sell that comes in a fake cat food can, but rather than cat food they've had all sorts of random stuff inside over the years, including toiletries, bandages, standard concert swag, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and one infamously contained condoms and tissues]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* The musical version of ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors'' has a ''lot'' of people trying to jump on the Audrey II bandwagon, including a seed manufacturer [[TooDumbToLive that wanted to sell seeds and/or clippings from Audrey.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The old FPS game ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' has a secret level set in a small shopping mall. One of the stores has a nice display of ''Blood'' action figures, including little shotgun-wielding crazed cultists and scythe-wielding ghosts. This game came out before the whole "PanderingToTheBase by selling accurate-likeness toys/posters/{{Feelies}} in direct market shops" thing was all the rage in the marketing world.
* ''VideoGame/TheDivision'', in a phone call, you can learn about Charles Bliss chewing out a PR executive for his ad pitch completely missing the point of his PrivateMilitaryCompany. Said pitch apparently a combination of action and explosions.
* The most infamously bizarre [[{{Feelies}} preorder bonus]] in gaming history, the [[VideoGame/LunarTheSilverStar Ghaleon]] punching puppet obtained by preordering ''[[VideoGame/Lunar2EternalBlue Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete]]'', was likely meant to be a parody of this phenomenon, judging by the silly quips on the packaging.
* ''VideoGame/RatchetDeadlocked'' is a game about Ratchet being kidnapped and forced to compete in [[ImmoralRealityShow DreadZone]], where heroes kill eachother in gladiatorial combat. In both cutscenes and AnnouncerChatter we see a lot of advertisments for [=DreadZone=] merchendise targeted at kids, such as trading cards ("Collect them all, and exterminate ''your'' friends today!"). Notably, the BigBad has a very hard time getting [[TheDragon Ace Hardlight]] merch to sell, because kids ''hate'' him for being a complete {{Jerkass}}.
* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'': An [[https://saintsrow.fandom.com/wiki/File:MUS_SHARED_00049_Bling_Bling.ogg in-game radio advertisement]] for an in-game jewelry shop ''Bling Bling'' is, if not directed at the wrong audience, tonally completely at odds with it what it is selling, with the announcer diligently stressing all the "gangsta" terms like he would current corporate buzzwords in a patently upbeat corporate tone that is sure to turn off the store's actual gangsta customers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* As an AprilFoolsDay joke, IGN produced [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOqHUa2LfNY a trailer]] for a SaturdayMorningCartoon based on ''Franchise/MassEffect''. False accusations of it being a "porn simulator" not withstanding, ''Mass Effect'' is decidedly ''not'' family friendly by any stretch.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' brings us the Plasma Cannon Safety Coloring Book.
-->"[[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2007-06-16 My illustrators]] tell me you're pretty easy to draw."
* ''Webcomic/{{Erma}}'' has an [[ShowWithinAShow in-universe franchise]] called "Warrior Unicorn Princess". From the marketing, it seems like just another example of MyLittlePhony. But when (some of) an episode is finally shown onscreen, it turns out to be surprisingly dark and violent.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Series/LawAndOrder'': [[http://www.brandonbird.com/lno_color.html The Coloring Book]].
* From the same guy: ''SVU''-themed [[http://www.brandonbird.com/svutines.html Valentine's Day cards]].
* A bit of MemeticMutation centres around an exaggeration of this trope in conjunction with Creator/{{Kenner}}/Creator/{{Hasbro}}'s love of making figures of everyone and everything in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe, no matter how minor or squicky. [[http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2011/03/31/no-star-wars-collection-would-be-complete-without-it/ There are pictures]] of a fan's custom figurine of the burned corpses of Owen and Beru -- as in, a few little bits of disconnected black/red debris. Other such parody figurines exist, including more complete skeletons and their burned-out home.
* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-261 SCP-261]] vends some things that seem inappropriate during authorized experimentation sessions, from edible underwear to things that explode, kill several researchers and cause the place to smell like citrus for days. Some item's design and packaging can resemble this trope, even keeping in mind how bizarre the things it can vend may already be; things including a Sunday Profani-snack composed of a sachet of wine and communion wafers with daemonic symbols moulded in, whose packaging declares "Damnation Guaranteed!", cookies composed of seven concentric circles (Tastes like Hell!) and the packaging for "candy Bullets", which portrays smiling characters who are ''happy to be shot with a self-loading pistol''.
* A bit of ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' player lore featured a hero named Ascendant, whose player would stand around having phone conversations with his agent. [[https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Ascendant-O%27s One cited on Paragon Wiki is about the horrible tie-in items he had launched.]]
-->''"You're selling cereal that can kill me to my archenemies, you've made my action figure not only ludicrous but potentially lethal to kids, and you're committing felonies by broadcasting illegal transmissions of ''Series/{{Nightline}}'' from off shore. Oh, and I almost forgot, you're selling an action playset which proudly proclaims on the box that [[AccidentalInnuendo 'Ascendant stores all of his most precious items inside his incredible A-Hole.']]"''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* Website/CollegeHumor's Original video "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BK6YeSw-3Q The Hunger Games]]" parodies this by turning ''Film/TheHungerGames'' into a board game targeted towards love-obsessed teenage girls, whereas the story itself is about a literal duel to the death set in a dystopian North America.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]