If CoversAlwaysLie, trailers can, too. Sometimes TonightSomeoneDies or hyping TheReveal might not be enough. And with the Internet an open window these days for writers and directors to viewers' likes, dislikes, hopes, predictions, and {{Shipping}} loyalties, it's easy to know exactly how to bait fans into watching the next episode. Be careful not to believe everything you see, though, because as all FanVid makers know, any scene can be mixed-and-matched with another to look completely different from their real context.

(Indeed, the creation of fake trailers to make a movie look like it's from a completely different genre has become one of the Internet's most beloved recent art forms, such as ''TheShining'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmkVWuP_sO0 as a happy romantic comedy]], the one that started it all, or ''MaryPoppins'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic as a slasher horror flick]].)

In the worst examples, it'll actually drive away those who would have otherwise watched, by completely confusing the relevant demographic.

[[PolishTheTurd If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.]]

See [[http://www.cracked.com/article_17585_5-things-movie-trailers-need-stop-doing.html this list]] for more examples.

'''Specific types:'''
* ShipTease
** BaitAndSwitchLesbians
** TonightSomeoneKisses
* SuperDickery

Often a form of MisaimedMarketing. Contrast with TrailersAlwaysSpoil, where the trailer is a little ''too'' honest. If it's a TV show's TitleSequence that lies, those are BaitAndSwitchCredits.
----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime ]]

* The trailer for the fourth ''{{Naruto}}'' movie seems to strongly have this going. For those interested, the tagline is [[spoiler: "Naruto Dies"]].
** Regular Naruto episodes do this from time to time, too -- early in ''Shippuuden'', one episode made Naruto's knowledge of the ending of an "Icha Icha" book a PlotPoint. The OnTheNext consisted of Tsunade yelling at him for reading porn ([[ChildSoldiers wtf??]]), and telling him he'd be cleaning the Academy's toilets as punishment. The actual next episode was the start of the Rescue Gaara arc. That's probably a good thing.
*** In fact, not only does that not happen, [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole the details discussed in the preview (namely that Naruto only read a couple pages of the book) would turn out to conflict the manga's canon]], and thus are likely to become non-canon.
** Much earlier, the trailer and title for one episode suggested [[SealedEvilInACan the seal on the nine-tailed fox]] was about to be broken... but it was only ''loosened'' when Naruto began using its chakra for the first time, and we eventually find out that's only like ''one-tenth'' broken.
** In the Three-Tails arc trailer, Naruto stands beside the other members of Team 7 and Team 8 on the foggy lake, apparently facing off against Deidara and Tobi, and Orochimaru and Kabuto. He says "I'll never let them take the Three Tails!" [[spoiler:The Akatsuki don't come for the beast until after the Leaf ninja have left, and Naruto doesn't meet Tobi until late in the next arc]], so this scene never happens, and he never says that line.
* Cartoon Network's advertisements for ''TenchiMuyo'' were infamous in this regard. Thanks to the Toonami-style editing that the trailers underwent, ''TenchiMuyo'' was made to appear as an exciting, action-oriented anime full of guns and stuff. While the show does have some action sequences, it is certainly not action-oriented in any way, and the disappointment was reflected in the show's ratings. Note also that the trailers combined clips from all three of the series' incarnations.
** This might be a double example, as the trailer for the show also played up the show's steamier side (complete with an out-of-context clip of Sasami saying "You're a naughty boy, aren't you, Tenchi?") While the uncut show does have quite a bit of this, the version broadcast on Toonami cut out any and all sexual references.
*** Of course, [[{{Narm}} it turns out your sister was right.]]
* Similarly, a TV-guide description of ''TenchiMuyo in Love'' was "Police officers chase an escaped convict." While technically true, this leaves out the fact that they're SpacePolice officers, that the convict is a evil alien, that they're chasing it ''back in time'', and that said officers are only two members of the group that goes back -- and the ones who get the least attention, at that.
* The trailer for the original ''{{Hellsing}}'' TV Series not only has almost nothing to do with the plot of the TV series, but also features a completely different style of music and higher quality/differently styled animation to that which occurs in the series. The problem is that the trailer is based mainly off a volume of the manga that never made it into the TV series.
** It also ends with a tease of the Major. Neither he or anything to do with Millenium end up in the series, as it OvertookTheManga ''just'' before the introduction of Millenium.
* ''SailorMoon'' was marketed by the dub company to US TV stations with [[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1ckOv5e25Y this tape]], informing potential business partners that "[[PeripheryDemographic Boys]] will love the non-stop action!" I don't think ''[[{{Fanservice}} that's]]'' what they loved.
** SailorMoonAbridged did a knock-off of this, saying girls would love the sparkles and giggling, boys would love the action that [[ExecutiveMeddling got cut]], Dad would love the [[{{Fanservice}} naked transformation scenes]], and Mom would love the fact that nobody's bothering her [[BatmanBeyond while she's in the kitchen]]. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jRQwHOgfHQ&feature=channel_page watch it here]]
* The back of some of the DVD boxes for ''{{Gravitation}}'' are very carefully worded in just how they summarize the series and its events. It's entirely possible for someone to pick it up without realizing that it's a BoysLove series.
* ''{{Planetes}}'' does this deliberately with its PostEpisodeTrailer. While they use clips from the next episode, all of them are stripped of context and out-of-order, making it completely impossible to accurately guess the next episode's contents.
* ''{{Inuyasha}}'' is also known for misleading PostEpisodeTrailer. While the narration is usually fairly accurate, it's played over mostly random shots from the next episode, and is done by the characters themselves who have a tendency to exaggerate and/or go off topic. One notable instance includes 2 or 3 references to Jaken, Sesshomaru's minion who featured prominently in the next episode, but those references are drowned out by Kagome confusing his name for Jan-Ken-Pon, the japanese name for Rock-Paper-Scissors, and trying to convince the others to let her teach them how to play it.
* For every ''{{Pokemon}}'' movie, the early Japanese teasers and trailers contain scenes not in the released film. The most noted one, a silhouette of Mewtwo in the first trailer of the third movie, given that Mewtwo already had a focal movie, the first one. Naturally Mewtwo did not appear in the final film.
** I would say the most notable, and odd, was the first movies trailer. What does an adult Misty with her GSC hair style, that police lady, and Misty's future daughter, have to do with Mewtwo?
*** It's speculated that around the time this trailer was made, the Pokemon anime was slated to end at episode 78, with the movie (which would most likely being told as a flashback by an older Misty) serving as the "finale" to the show.
** Some of the trailers for the eigth Pokemon movie (''Lucario and the Mystery of Mew'' or ''Mew and the Wave-Guiding Hero, Lucario'' depict scenes like Kid's van being caught in the middle of a geyser field, Lucario dodging falling rocks, Lucario apparently ''dead'' of unknown causes, and various other scenes, none of which are seen in either the Japanese or English versions of the film.
* The ''Gakuen Utopia ManabiStraight!'' trailer featured missiles destroying clocktowers and city-levelling explosions, absolutely none of which were featured in the show itself. This somewhat disappointed many viewers, who were hoping for a TwistEnding they had pre-emptively dubbed "The Lolicaust".
* ''WagayaNoOinariSama'' plays its next episode previews completely straight at first, but as the series goes on, the previews start to consist entirely of scenes that never happen in the next episode. Such as a {{kaiju}} battle between Kuugen and Byakki.
* Spoofed by ''Excel Saga'' by having trailers which have the scenes edited to resemble a romantic comedy and an action show.
*Quite a lot of NeonGenesisEvangelion PostEpisodeTrailers had Misato Katsuragi promising "more fanservice!" in a cheery voice. Not many episodes delivered, or at least not as much as was promised
*Spoofed in the fan-made flick, AMV Hell. At the end of the first AMV Hell, there is a trailer for AMV Hell 2, with several scenes set to epic music, with the note "Featuring none of the scenes shown here." Nothing is sacred, indeed.
*''{{Clannad}}'''s anime adaptation does this quite a lot with their PostEpisodeTrailer every episode. One implied a pretty explicit HoYay relationship that might form between the main character [[HeterosexualLifePartners and his closest friend]].
** Another particularly hilarious one is [[YamatoNadeshiko Nagisa]] seemingly agreeing that she's a bully.
* Behold [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSkrKXp2Ces the trailer]] for ''Maho Shojo Tai'' (Magical Girls' Club.) Look exciting? Not a single frame of it appears anywhere in the actual (unfortunately mediocre) series.
* The trailers for the anime adaptation of one TearJerker of a strip in ''AxisPowersHetalia'' showed the episode being in English (the strip concerns America and England, both being English speakers). Fans feared some very serious {{Narm}} since the {{Engrish}} was barely understandable. However, the actual episode turned out to be in Japanese.
* ''MazingerZ'' used extreme hyperbole in its next-episode previews, and was not above outright lying to the audience to hype up an episode. The most famous example is an episode called "Koji Kabuto Drowns in Lava!"
* Famously, some of the boxes for ''Ranma 1/2'' described the series as a "sex comedy." Considering the lack of actual sex in the show, they probably meant "gender comedy."
*''Rebuild of {{Evangelion}}'''s [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-rjxQm_6Go American trailer]], which makes it seem like something MichaelBay would come up with, rather cleverly concealing all the angst.
* Done many, many times in Italian dub openings (see also SpoilerOpening). Examples:
** KimagureOrangeRoad: the opening says Kyōsuke (dubbed Johnny in Italy) is psychokinetic and can also read minds. Ok, he's psychokinetic, but he can't read minds. (Probably this is due to a misunderstanding: in an episode, Kyōsuke and his cousin Kazuya [[FreakyFriday switch bodies]], and Kazuya can read minds). Furthermore, the song focuses on Kyōsuke's powers, but the plot is actually focused on the LoveTriangle.
*** ThisTroper also remember a children newspaper saying that Kyōsuke's main power are precognitive dreams. That's false. (Another misunderstanding? In an episode, he dreams [[spoiler:Hikaru's death and is afraid it's a precognitive dream. It's not!]])
** NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater: the opening says Nadia and Jean are 13. But they're 14 !
** SaintSeiya: the first time it was aired in Italy (by Odeon TV, in 1990), the opening depicted it as the story of some guys fighting each other in a tournament to win the Sagittarius golden armor - repeating obsessively "only one in the end will win". Actually, the tournament only lasts the first few episodes, it's abruptly interrupted when the bad guys show up, [[spoiler: and it's NEVER resumed, so that NOBODY wins the tournament]]. Oh, yes, [[spoiler:sometimes the main character wears the Sagittarius armor, but only because the armor is somewhat sentient and ''decides'' to protect him - after all, he's TheHero]].
*** Furthermore, the opening call the characters "Saints", but they are never called Saints in the Italian dub, only Knights (see also {{Woolseyism}})
*** Before it was broadcasted, the Odeon TV spot announced it as a new cartoon coming "sulle ali della fantascienza più sfrenata" ("on the wings of the most unleashed science fiction"). But science fiction has little or no role in the plot.
*** In 1991 a new opening was aired: AGAIN, it focused around the tournament, around winning the golden armor as the only imporant thing, around "the stronger in the end will win". It included also nonsensical sentences such as "l'amicizia non ha più dignità" ("friendship has no longer dignity"): friendship among the main characters is a very important plot point, as in many similar stories.
*The opening for ''SchoolDays'' makes it look like a happy, up-beat love story with lots of {{FanService}}. They got the {{FanService}} part right.
* Before the second season of ''DarkerThanBlack'' came out, many a fan whined over the fact that the [[http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a209/HarukoDear4Life/Darker%20Than%20Black/?action=view¤t=DTBFirstApprouchNewCharacters.jpg promos]] suggested it would be much LighterAndSofter than the first season. Turns out that StudioBONES was fucking with us.
* Early promotion for the 13th DetectiveConan movie heavily involved a scene with the most prominent antagonist of the series shooting Conan at point-blank range after having discovered his true identity. It turns out to be AllJustADream ''before the opening credits''.
* ''UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'' - The next-episode previews have been full of blatant lies, characters acting incredibly out-of-character and inside-jokes.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* Fans of the book will know ''BridgeToTerabithia'' is not a fantasy adventure story, as depicted in the trailers for the movie, but more of a tale about bonding between two friends. The screenwriters [[http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=40014&type=0 have stated that they are not pleased with the way the film was marketed]], and the actual movie is much more faithful to the book.
* The trailer for the 2006 version of ''Black Christmas'' was full of interesting scenes, like a girl getting dragged by Christmas lights, or another one being trapped under the ice... scenes shot '''just for the trailer''' to make the movie look scarier and way less stupid than it actually is.
* The trailer for the movie version of ''BicentennialMan'' made it look like a goofy comedy about a family and their robot; all clips were taken from the first fifteen minutes or so of the two-hour movie.
** Likewise, the trailers for ''Jack'' played it up as a ''Big''-like comedy, all because Robin Williams was in it. The actual movie? One big TearJerker.
*** Let's not forget [[http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2544999680/tt0116669 the posters]] for Jack. They're all pictures of a happy guy with little kiddy writing. Quite inappropriate really, for a movie that is about a kid who, at the end of the film, [[spoiler: is graduating from high school as an apparent 90 year old, and will in all likelihood be dead within months]].
* The film adaptation of the play {{Film/Bug}} is a psychological thriller about a woman getting a new boyfriend and going insane. Yet, it was advertised as a horror film about bugs underneath your skin... and the film suffered because of it.
* M. Night Shyamalan's ''LadyInTheWater'', while marketed as a horror movie, is actually a semi-metafictional fantasy story with only a few moments of suspense.
** This was also true for another of his films, ''TheVillage''. Its trailers present it as a scary horror film while in truth it's nothing but a drama/love story movie. [[spoiler: Albeit with a couple of Shyamalan's trademark twists.]]
** This sort of marketing misrepresentation is so endemic to Shyamalan's films that when the trailers for ''The Happening'' came out, my sister predicted that the actual movie would be "the feel-good comedy of the summer." She was only half kidding. Neither of us can ''wait'' to see how the advertising handles [[AvatarTheLastAirbender this project]].
* Disney's film ''SnowDogs'' was marketed with scenes of the title animals talking and joking, cartoon style - which only occurs during a DreamSequence had by Cuba Gooding Jr.'s main character.
* Similarly, the film ''KangarooJack'' was marketed with scenes of a wisecracking, talking kangaroo who only appears during a [[{{Dream Sequence}} hallucination]] had by one of the main characters; the title kangaroo does not talk, and the film is not as kid-friendly as one would get the impression of from the trailer.
** Also spawned a serious case of DidNotDoTheResearch in amateur film critics, many of which blasted the film as "another kid movie about talking animals." Anyone who saw the movie can tell you it is neither kid-friendly nor about talking animals.
**Ironically, there was a direct-to-video animated spinoff where the kangaroo ''did'' talk, by means of a magic spell.
* The trailer for the 1986 Troma film "Combat Shock" toted it as being a Rambo-style bloodbath, though the film itself was more of a psychological horror.
* A lot of trailers end up with scenes that don't make it into the final movie, because the final cut of the movie isn't done when the trailer is made. In some cases, the trailer looks like it has scenes from the movie but doesn't. For example, the trailer for ''DirtyRottenScoundrels'' was shot on the film's set with the film's actors, but the footage was intended solely for the trailer and does not appear in the film at all.
** A trailer for ''The Pagemaster'' showed Macaulay Culkin's character receiving a sword that floated down from the library ceiling. It was really cool looking, but wasn't in the film '''at all'''. This caused the Latin American title to become... "El Espadachín Valiente" (The Brave Swordsboy)
** Some of the trailers for ''Film/{{Superman}} Returns'' showed the destruction of Krypton, and a shot of Clark's ship travelling over rough terrain. In the final cut, the story picks up after he arrives on Earth.
* While trailers for ''Funny People'' keep the tone of a dramadey entect, they make the Leslie Mann relationship seem all too perfect for Adam Sandler and make Eric Bana seem like a total douche. This ''isn't'' true. They also exaggerate the romantic aspect with Mann's character, who is in about a third of the movie and somewhat downplay the relationship between Sandler and Rogen which makes up the bulk of the film.
* The dramatic thriller ''Red Eye'' was named for the fact that it mostly takes place on a red eye airline flight. Trailers for the movie took footage from the film and used special effects to make the antagonist's eyes glow red in an attempt to attract undue interest.
** Also, the trailers usually tricked you into thinking it was a chick flick, until halfway through, when they'd usually play the "My business is all about you" clip.
* The movie ''GoodbyeLenin'' was marketed on being a comedy with the outrageous concept of the main character making it appear the Communist world never fell for his ailing mother. In reality, it's an arthouse movie with very little humour in between the genuine drama of the son's Byzantine schemes. Given that it's a German film, this editor ought to have expected it...
** It is a comedy, it's just that it's a dark comedy with a bittersweet ending.
* Two trailers were made for ''{{Solaris}}'', one making it look like an action-adventure, the other focusing on the romance story. The film may have failed due to audiences expecting such types of movies, instead of the philosophical, dialogue-heavy film it turned out to be.
* The trailer for ''Cry_Wolf'' makes the film out to have a much higher body count than it actually has. The film is actually best described as a "faux-slasher" and was rated 12 in the UK. The publicity probably contributed to the film not doing well at the box office. That's not saying it's a bad film. This contributor knew this before he watched it and enjoyed it more because of it.
* A trailer in 2002 advertised the film ''Lucky Star'' directed by Michael Mann and starring Benicio Del Toro as a professional gambler milking vast amounts of money from casinos and the stock market before drawing the attention of government agents. Turned out that there was never going to be a film at all -- the whole thing was actually an advert for the new Mercedes SL, his getaway car. The new Volvo [=S80=] also used a film-trailer-style TV ad, and LG also pulled this stunt with its new Scarlet line of [=TVs=].
** This particular variant was parodied by Samsung in a fake trailer promoting smartphone. "No Guns", "No Romance", "No Plot", "Just Phone". "The Greatest Product Placement Movie of All Time".
* Trailers for ''ChasingAmy'' make it look like the plot is a man fruitlessly chasing after a lesbian (who [[{{IAmNotShazam}} isn't even named Amy]], as it turns out); he ''gets'' her halfway through, and the bulk of the movie is an exploration of sexual self-definition.
* The trailer for the 1987 movie ''TheGate'' included every single special effect in the entire film except one.
* The trailer for ''TheNegotiator'' featured Kevin Spacey saying something akin to "Now you have to deal with both of us", a line that would have indicated the movie taking a much different route than it actually did.
* Rare example of this being done for a movie that doesn't exist: One of the fake trailers in ''{{Grindhouse}}'', entitled "Don't!", is filmed so that you never hear the characters talking, and wouldn't know they were British. Many horror films of the '70s were marketed to Americans in this way.
* ''[[PansLabyrinth Pan's Labyrinth]]'' was marketed as a family friendly fantasy adventure a la ''{{Narnia}}''. '''[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel It isn't]]'''. In addition, the trailers and promotional material kinda left out one detail: The movie's in Spanish with subtitles. This resulted in so many complaints along the lines of "It's in the wrong language! I want it in English!" that movie theaters (and rental stores, once the film hit DVD) had to put up signs saying "''Pan's Labyrinth'' is in Spanish and that's the way it's meant to be".
* In order to explain what one of the characters does later, in the film ''Used Cars'', there is a scene where it tells how honest they are, Kurt Russell says to a woman, "I want you to get up on that stand, and lie." While she does in fact do this, that scene never appears in the film.
* The publicity campaign for ''SweeneyTodd'' said nothing about it being a musical.
** The trailer also showed several scenes out of context, changing their meaning. A [[HangingJudge random trial]] appears as Sweeney's. A scene in an asylum appears as Sweeney in prison. And eye spying on Joanna appears to spy on Sweeney. And Lovett's line "but what are we going to do about him?", coming after the song "Epiphany" instead appears to come after Sweeney's [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome At last my arm is complete]] line.
* The trailer for ''Lord Of War'' made it out to be more of an action comedy than the super-depressing drama it ended up being.
** And then they flipped it for another of NicolasCage's movies, ''Bangkok Dangerous'', which the trailers made look like a slow, thoughtful examination of the assassination trade, when it was actually a pretty standard shoot 'em up action movie. Clearly, the promotional firms for the two movies should have been switched... as it is, they should just be fired.
* The initial TV ads for ''GoodLuckChuck'' place all of their emphasis on Jessica Alba's clumsiness, making the movie out to be a slapstick romantic comedy. The titular "good luck" curse, where Chuck sleeps with a woman and the next man she meets is her "true love," is never mentioned. They did eventually start running commercials that focused on the curse, though.
* During the promotion of a network broadcast of ''Spanglish'', Adam Sandler screams in his typical wacky fashion at super-sexy Spaniard Paz Vega, completely misrepresenting the tone of the film.
* When the film ''No Reservations'' was coming out in theaters, there were two trailers for it. One hyped up the "romantic comedy" angle, leaving the plot of the main female character having to care for her newly orphaned niece completely out, as if she didn't exist; another trailer, oddly enough usually shown much later at night, mostly did the reverse, focusing on the niece and only including a few shots of her tension with the guy as if he were just a minor complication to the whole thing. Now that it's coming out on DVD, the trailers used are for the "all romantic comedy" version, and the other side has been completely omitted.
* There's the 1954 animated movie version of Orwell's ''AnimalFarm'' which faithfully followed the novel... and then there's the 1999 made-for-TV version after a teleplay by some guy named Alan Janes, with talking animatropic animals, voiced by actors. And, um, it's apparently marketed for children, because you know... cute animals. [[http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi498532633/ this trailer]] implies that it's a family friendly ''Babe''-type movie. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksnwIUyspps This trailer]], however, gets the tone of the story much more accurately.
* The early teaser trailers for ''[=~E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial~=]'' focused on the creepy alien POV sequence from the woodland escape scene, complete with chilling music and a creepy atmosphere, which gave the impression that ET was to be a sci-fi horror film. To be fair, though, it originally [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Skies was]].
* In reverse, in the theatrical trailer of ''{{Gremlins}}'', the Gremlins' presence is hinted and implied rather than shown, and next to no kills are shown, making it look like a fantasy children's film.
* The original trailers and commercials for ''Resurrecting the Champ'' portrayed the growing bond between Samuel L. Jackson's homeless ex-champion and Josh Harnett's newspaper reporter and the latter's reconnection with his own family. This is actually what the movie is about. But, inexplicably, a couple weeks before the opening, the trailers shifted to portray what looked like a "One man crusade for justice" on behalf of the Jackson character.
* One trailer for ''{{Film/Spider-Man}} 2'' actually used scenes from the movie to make it look like Peter Parker admits he is Spider-Man. He reveals voluntarily to just one person ([[spoiler:Dr. Octopus]]) in the movie.
** ''Spider-Man 3'' had a TV spot/trailer for it made which made it seem like Spidey had the black suit for about half an hour before Venom came in and became the films major villain. Clips of police officers shooting upwards and Symbiote Spider-Man swinging about were cut together with clips of Peter being smashed through buildings and dodging debris, giving the impression that Venom and Spider-Man would have epic, city wide battles. Of course, [[spoiler: Venom was a very minor character, in comparison to New Goblin and Sandman, and even Gwen Stacey had more screen time. He only appeared at the very end of the film, and was killed off after a short appearance. The character didn't even survive one night within the film's universe, and was completely annihilated in an explosion]]. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idPpiH7rBIs&feature=related Here it is]].
* The trailer for ''Cold Creek Manor'' made it seem like the house was haunted. Instead, it was just some crazy guy messing with the family.
** [[TheShining Why can't it be both?]]
* The UK network Sky's trailer for ''The Pursuit of Happiness'' made it out to be a comedy. It certainly isn't.
* As American Football is not a very popular sport in the UK, trailers for ''Leatherheads'' completely disguised the fact that it is a sports movie, which leaves the title very, very bizarre. Some people thought it was about barnstormers and the name was a reference to flying helmets...
* Subversion: One of the trailers for ''[[Film/{{ptitlejg38r3xwzu8c}} The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' is set up as the Guide's entry on movie trailers, detailing tricks such the inclusion of shots of violent explosions and scantily clad women which do not appear in the actual movie, implying the movie would be more clever.
* The trailers for ''In Bruges'' make it sound like a harmless little comedy about fugitives. [[{{Tearjerker}} It really, really isn't.]] Some trailers for the film refer to it as an action-comedy. What does that say?
*The film ''Syriana'' was marketed as though it were an almost ''MadMax''-esque thriller set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, and was full of stuff blowing up. In fact, the film was a ensemble piece on the effects of oil politics on a whole swath of people from totally divergent backgrounds.
* ''EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'' had one particularly bad ad that made it look like some sort of madcap comedy starring JimCarrey (which is not entirely surprising).
* Who can forget the [[http://youtube.com/watch?v=mfBbpyiK7ds early trailer]] for ''StarTrekGenerations''? It gave the impression that Captain Kirk comes aboard the Enterprise-D to help Picard and his crew fight off a Klingon Bird of Prey. Of course, it probably jolted audiences when they actually saw the film and witnessed [[DroppedABridgeOnHim what happened to Kirk]].
** The trailer for ''StarTrekGenerations'' is basically one huge lie (or 'alternative interpretation'). It seems to give off the idea that Kirk and Picard team up in their ships to ''"save the universe"'' when what they basically do is save 230 million people (who we never see) by wailing on Malcom Macdowell. The Kirk gets a bridge dropped on him.
* The trailer for ''Man of the Year,'' a film starring RobinWilliams, makes the film look like a comedy. It is actually mostly a drama about a comedic talkshow host who runs for president... [[spoiler:and gets elected half an hour in.]] The trailer also hides that it ''isn't only'' about him; it gives no hint of a more critical & dramatic plot in the film.
* Spoofed in an ad for ''StarshipTroopers'' on Showtime. The trailer begins by making it seem like a normal coming of age story before the transition, "...as a young man learns what he was born to do... kick the crap out of man eating alien mutant bugs!" as it switches to the action scenes.
* The trailer for ''ThePrinceOfEgypt'' implied it as a very action-oriented animated movie. It wasn't of course - it was a religious story about everything from the birth of [[TheBible Moses]] to parting the Red Sea. Disappointment ensues.
*** If you made it all the way from the first press releases to opening day without ever deducing that it was a film about the story of Moses: frankly, you deserved to be let down.
** My local newspaper claimed it was the most violent animated movie of the decade, and that [[AnimationAgeGhetto young children]] would be turned off by the blood and the violence. Nothing further from the truth.
*** Maybe they meant all the blood in the first plague... that was simply transmuted water.
* The suspense thriller ''Hush'' had a trailer of the 'includes scenes shot but eventually cut from the final version' variety. Images which appeared included an overhead shot down a spiral staircase of a body being taken away on a gurney under a sheet; a shot which implied the son confronted his mother about her sinister doings; an all-out fight scene between Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Lange with shards of a broken mirror; and a climactic battle in a burning barn, complete with rearing horses and a collapsing hayloft. ''None of this happens at all in the film.'' Even if the makers are telling the truth about it being cut, it's obvious they made the most of their product seeming to be an action movie. It's hard to tell whether including the GenreShift would have improved or ruined the original movie or not--but this editor was frankly disappointed it was cut/never there to begin with, although the fact the movie instead has a lackluster, trickle-off sort of ending probably didn't help.
* The trailer for ''TheBoondockSaints'' includes a clip of Willem Dafoe's character saying "This could just be the first international mob war," or something to that effect. That line is indeed in the movie, but then 3 minutes later his theory is shot down.
* The trailer for ''TheProposition'' has David Wenham's quote "If you're going to kill one, make sure you bloody well kill them all," placed in such a way as to trick the viewer into thinking that the quote has some relevance to the main plot, regarding the Burns Gang. In the film, it's just a [[KickTheDog dog-kick]] regarding his character's views on Aborigine uprisings.
* ''Sorcerer'' was marketed as a supernatural thriller since it was produced just after ''The Exorcist'' (which shared William Friedkin as director). In fact, it's a non-supernatural action thriller.
* The David Mamet film ''Redbelt'' trailers made it look like an action movie that takes place in a UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts tournament. Let's reiterate: a ''DavidMamet'' film.
* Minor example: The trailer to ''Be Kind, Rewind'' has Jack Black saying "I've got another idea, follow me" placed after Mos Def realizing that his tapes have been wiped. Since Jack's character is crazy, it sounds sensible to think he comes up with the ZanyScheme... [[spoiler: until you watch the film and find that it's Mos who comes up with the idea. Jack's line is in there... just before he drags a HollywoodHomely into their scheme so he doesn't have to awkwardly kiss his mechanic.]]
** Heck, for that matter, the fact that the trail concentrates solely on the [[StylisticSuck sweding]], [[spoiler: and not at all on the Fats Waller and community spirit angles.]]
* The ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' trailer makes it look like an original comic book film, and not a novel adaptation. Sure fans of the book wanted that very thing, but mainstream audiences were likely very confused.
** It also makes it look like Dr. Manhattan, not Rorschach, is the point of view character.
* Television ads for ''TheDayTheEarthStoodStill'' remake have the tagline promise that humanity will heroically "Fight Back!" Really. In reverse, some of the ads imply that humanity is completely and totally doomed, and there is no point trying to fight back, making Klaatu look invincible.
* A TV spot for ''FightClub'' portrayed it as a romantic comedy.
** Most ads for ''Fight Club'' made it look like an action movie all about fighting (and the name certainly seems to back it up). Many theatergoers likely skipped it because of this, and were probably miffed when they realized it was something they might have liked.
** Ironically, the author of the book stated in the foreword of a republishing of ''Fight Club'' that absolutely ''nobody'' noted that the novel was a romance; which in a really twisted way, it is.
* 'As Good As It Gets'' looked like it would have had a George Carlin type character using more cynical observations and one liners than the one in the preview. The subplot hijacking the main plot didn't help.
* The preview for ''Anger Management'' looked like Jack Nicholson would have clever lines. Actually, any preview with Jack Nicholson looks like it would have clever lines. He just has to smile in front of the camera and it's implied there will be some cleverness. Unfortunately, the person who makes the preview knows this as well. Jack Nicholson should be considered false advertising.
* They did this the film ''Prom Night''. It began looking like a chick-flick comedy until the lights go out, then the true genre is revealed.
** If we're taking about the 2008 remake, the trailer didn't lie about it being a suckfest.
* ''{{Hancock}}'' is either the saddest comedy ever or ''not a comedy at all''.
** While it has definite comedic moments, it is not nearly the action comedy that the trailers implied it would be.
*** I found it to about 30% comedy, but the funny stopped cold once Hancock starts listening to the PR guy.
* The trailer for ''Forbidden Kingdom'' totally omitted the [[TrappedInAnotherWorld basic premise]] and ''[[MightyWhitey main character]]'' of the film in order to sell it as a typical {{wuxia}} film but with Jackie Chan and Jet Li. It's not.
* ''Warriors of Virtue'' looked like a serious martial arts fantasy movie. It took until ''Harry Potter'' to realize kid's movies don't have to be cheesy. Like ''The Forbidden Kingdom.'' Forget it.
* ''The One'' looked like an excuse to show Jet Li fighting Jet Li the entire time, with crazy Matrix style effects, but there were only a few brief fights and more useless subplots.
* ''ReignOfFire'' advertised with an image of dragons attacking London, with helicopters flying to defend. The real movie wasn't nearly as exciting.
** Multiple commercials for ''ReignOfFire'' ended with Matthew [=McConaughey=]'s character leaping off a tower tower straight at the dragon with an ax [[ScreamingWarrior screaming]] at the top of his lungs. Just see what happens in the movie.
***In short[[spoiler: OM NOM NOM]]
* Parodied in ''Smokin' Aces''. The trailer begins by suggesting it would be some sort of sappy romance, then abruptly switches to a frenetic action montage more fitting for a movie about competing assassins. The film itself was much slower paced and dramatic than the trailers suggested.
* The dark comedy ''The Matador'' was billed as an action movie, which it is not. As a result, the film did very poorly in theaters even though critics generally liked it.
* ''WaterHorse'' trailers suggested it would be a kiddy film about a boy and his cute little water dragon, in the tone of ''{{Babe}}''. One trailer even showed the bulldog saying it was the titular horse's "best friend". Sure, the movie starts out this way, but for the most part it's a lot more gritty than that, especially when the water horse grows up. It nearly kills the boy, and devours all the lake's wildlife. Towards the end, DrillSergeantNasty mistakes the water horse for an enemy sub [[spoiler: and nearly kills him and the boy.]] Oh, and remember that bulldog who is supposedly the horse's best friend? [[spoiler: Towards the end, when the water horse goes beserk, he swallows the dog whole and then tries to kill the owner. Make one wonder if the marketing people even watched the movie, there wasn't any hint of friendship between the dog and the water horse. The dog spends the earlier part of the film trying to catch the water horse when it's a baby, and then spend the end of the film in the water horse's belly.]] Combine all that with a boy who is counting down the days when his father will come home from the war, [[spoiler: only to slowly realize his father is never coming back since he's dead]] and it's far from the happy go lucky mood of the trailer. That said, that doesn't make it a depressing film and there are some heartwarming moments.
* The trailer for ''MaxPayne'' emphasizes the winged beasts and walls of fire Max sees and has lines like "The Devil is building his army. Max Payne is looking for something that God wants to stay hidden." It's like they're trying to make it look like a supernatural movie. People who've actually played the games will know that these are merely hallucinations the protagonist suffers and the plot is actually more of a typical crime drama.
** Movies based on games having the reputation they do, people who know they game might just think the movie [[AdaptationDecay completely missed the point]]
* The promotion of ''Film/HarryPotter and the Chamber of Secrets'' seemed to really love Dobby, despite him being onscreen for no more than fifteen minutes of a two and a half hour film. Apparently, Warner Bros.' marketing department decided kids love funny [=CGI=] characters and almost went so far as to made it look like Dobby would be the new movie's PluckyComicRelief. Instead, it just made reporters loudly raise the issue of whether or not Dobby was going to be the next [[StarWars Jar Jar Binks]].
* An international example: Michaelangelo Antonioni's ''L'Avventura'' is a very slow, high-concept, epic-length Italian film about a girl disappears and her friends being so empty inside that they have no remorse and merely get with each other to fill the void that the missing girl left (friend, lover). This is a film so difficult that it was BOOED AT CANNES. If you only had the trailer to go on, you'd boo it too, as the promotional clip makes it appear to be some sort of sexy, breeze romantic comedy, instead of the extensive, meandering ennui you get.
* The trailer for ''ThePrestige'' gives the viewer the impression that Christian Bale's character has ''actual magic powers'' which he uses for his stage magician act. Of course, nothing of the sort happens in the movie itself, but given the movie's theme of stage magic and it's use of misdirecting the audience, the use of this trope is rather appropriate.
** The closest to actual wizardry is [[spoiler:Nikola Tesla's machine, used by Hugh Jackman... "Any sufficient advanced technology can be seen as magic in the eyes of primitive people."]]
* A trailer for ''[[TheMagicRoundabout Doogal]]'' portrayed the film as being a comedy, specifically a parody of the adventure genre, i.e. ''Lord of the Rings''. The film ended up being filled with more sugary sweetness and life lessons than a Care Bears movie. And the VA that they used for the main character (a dog) in the trailer? It was really the rabbit. NeverTrustABunny.
* Not a trailer, per se, but the same idea for the first ''{{Riddick}}'' installment, ''Pitch Black''. In order to promote it, Sci-Fi Channel made a 45 minute long faux-documentary/drama called ''Into Pitch Black'' about an insurance investigator hiring a mercenary to find Riddick and what was left of the ship. Seems like a good way to promo the movie, and reveal more backstory, doesn't it? Well, it would have been, if it didn't have the acting and production quality of a 1990s FMV game, any actors from the film, or even had any semblance of competent writing. Even the entire ''genre'' of the movie is misrepresented: [[spoiler: The film is a sci-fi horror thriller in the vein of ''Film/{{Alien}}'' about people fighting to survive a long distance journey through a desert in months long darkness, filled with monsters who can see in the dark. The video instead doesn't even show any of the aliens until the end, and only in quick flashes. Instead, it deliberately re-edits footage to make it seem like some kind of ''{{Friday The 13th}}'' slasher film, with Riddick stalking the main characters, when in fact, he's actually ''the "hero"'' of the film.]] There's no question they lost more viewers than they gained. If you're really feeling masochistic, have a search for it on YouTube.
** Though the misrepresentation of the plot is probably the best you can do while avoiding TrailersAlwaysSpoil - knowing that [[spoiler: the planet is inhabited by omnivorous aliens and Riddick ends up as the hero]] would ruin the tension early on when the audience is meant to assume otherwise.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfokH6v4aOM This]] trailer for ''GosfordPark'' makes it look like a comedic whodunit rather than a dramatic movie about the British class system.
** Someone has been killed. Their reaction? "Oh, whatever, let's have some more tea and crumpets and discuss love and marriage". Not even Ed Wood was ''this'' bad.
* The theatrical trailer to ''Four Christmases'' made the film look like a ''ItsaMadMadMadMadWorld''-esque race to visit four families in time despite a canceled flight, when the actual premise of the movie is that they have to visit four families ''because'' of the canceled flight.
* ''Marley & Me'', released during the same Christmas season. Just...''[[OldYeller Marley & Me]]''. The trailer basically screams "See the cute puppy! See the cute puppy get into crazy antics!" The movie itself, however, says-"See the cute puppy! See the cute puppy get into crazy antics that get old after the first five minutes! See the cute puppy [[spoiler:[[DogDiesAtTheEnd grow old and die]].]]" Wasn't that a fun movie, kids? (Cue kids crying.)
* In ''TheSimpsons Movie'', the trailer shows, alongside clips from the actual movie, the scene from the [[ShowWithinAShow Itchy and Scratchy cartoon short at the beginning]] where hundreds of nuclear missiles are launched.
** Even the ''newest'' trailers don't explain or show the plot.
* Trailers made ''{{Click}}'' out to be another low brow Adam Sandler comedy. In actuality, it is quite the TearJerker, about a man being forced to skip through his own life as he grows old and dies.
* The trailers for the movie ''StrangerThanFiction'' made it out to be another wacky Will Ferrel comedy, when nearly all the humorous scenes were shown in the trailer. The tone of the movie was actually fairly serious.
** Which isn't to say that it's not funny. It's hilarious, but relies more on smart humor then on the slap-stick Ferrel is known for. But the trailer uses music that isn't used in the movie, misrepresents ''many'' scenes that are more serious, and if you didn't know before hand you'd swear that the trailer was hinting at a romance between Eiffel and Krick.
** Upon seeing the trailer, this Troper was certain that the movie involved Eiffel knowingly controling Krick's fate and actively trying kill him in real life for her book. In the movie, she has no idea he's real and there is only one attempt on his life ([[spoiler:which she stops at the last minute]]).
* In yet another example of a non-comedy starring a comedian marketed as a comedy, there's the 1994 RobinWilliams film ''Being Human'' ([[BeingHuman no relation]]). The trailer made it look like it was going to be another one of those "sweet-but-unlucky Robin" movies, and hey, the premise was the story of the same man through different periods of history, [[BlackAdder that makes for good comedy]]. But the movie was really a drama. And it was boring. And now it's more or less forgotten.
* You would be absolutely forgiven if you assumed, from the ads, that ''BurnAfterReading'' was a wacky comedy starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney.
** Maybe because it strains credulity to imagine George Clooney still thinking he's got a serious movie career.
* George Miller's ''HappyFeet'' was advertised early on as a very Pixar-Dreamworksesque animation, with a very light tone. In fact, the film itself was anything but, instead opting for an approach not at all dissimilar to ''WatershipDown'' or DonBluth's early eighties work, and most of the scenes used in the trailer were either from the first half hour or never appeared in the film, to begin with.
* In the trailer for ''ToyStory'', there is a clip where Buzz Lightyear says, "You're mocking me, aren't ya?" and pushes a tool box off a shelf and onto Woody. Given the context of the prior scenes shown, it seemed as though Buzz was getting revenge. In the actual context of the scene, Buzz was really trying to help Woody escape (he continued to push the tool box without knowing that Woody managed to get out), and the real line he says was "Almost... there..." The line as said in the trailer was actually used earlier on in the film, around the point where Sid was introduced.
* The trailers for ''TheWrestler'' made it out to be a bit of a modern ''{{Rocky}}'', and one of those "sad person gets his or her life back together, heartwarming ensues," movies. It's actually quite the subversion - wrestling is his highly self-destructive form of escapism from his crappy life, which he tries [[spoiler: and fails to get back together, then kills himself fighting in the ring.]]
* The trailer for ''{{Slumdog Millionaire}}'' makes it look like a happy love-and-success story, using ''only'' the shot of the kid with his girl to the tune of "The Sun Always Shines On TV". It completely fails to touch on how hellish his life is to that point. A poster also advertises the movie as "Two hours of unbelievable happiness!".
** The ratio is off by quite a bit, but at least they were honest enough to admit that there's nothing believable about it whatsoever.
* The trailer for ''{{Moon}}'' implies it's about a man going crazy after three years by himself on, well, the Moon only talking to his wife, co-workers (via phone) and his robot buddy kepting him sane long enough for the last two weeks to be over; in reality, [[spoiler: he's a clone: the company he's working for are cheap bastards, so they've been cloning him over and over, systematically killing off the older clones.]]
* When ''WaitingForGodot'' made its American debut in Miami, its marketing prominently featured stars Bert Lahr (The Cowardly Lion) and Tom Ewell (from ''The Seven-Year Itch''). Posters declared the play to be "the laugh sensation of two continents."
* A television commercial for ''[[DarkKnightTrilogy Batman Begins]]'' attempted to appeal to female audiences by playing Nickelback's "Someday" over shots of Bruce Wayne and Rachel Dawes looking at each other longingly. Not only did the TV spot spoil one of the climactic scenes of the movie (revealing that [[spoiler:Wayne Manor had burnt down]])), but it played up the expectation that the entire film was a love story with a bit of action on the side. Also, while not terribly misleading, a trailer for ''[[DarkKnightTrilogy The Dark Knight]]'' made it look as though the Joker had caused a truck to flip just by firing a machine gun. The two moments are not connected.
** Editing also made some parts of the Joker's dialogue misleading- in the actual movie his line "It's all part of the plan" is part of his monologue about how people like order (while he never has a plan) and the part where he says "And here... we... ''go''" followed by an exploding building was from the scene where [[spoiler:he's EXPECTING an explosion and is disappointed]].
** The ''LordOfTheRings'' films had trailers like this. One that was during daytime TV that featured only the Aragorn/Arwen romance scenes shown with soft melodies.
* ''SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'' (2004). Angelina Jolie is in the movie for all of 15 minutes, but you'd think she was the star.
* The theatrical trailer for ''{{Gattaca}}'' depicts it as a fast-paced action-thriller by constantly recycling a shot from the single moment of violence in the film, when Jerome punches a policeman while fleeing; it also includes virtually no footage of the film's third star, Jude Law, who is roughly as important to the plot as Ethan Hawke's character. There is no indication that the film is actually a slow, meditative exploration of bioethics and genetic cloning.
* This sort of backfired for the movie ''40 Days and 40 Nights''. The trailer and TV spots had the main character Matt state "No sex for Lent." Cue everybody who does not have sex at least once every forty days roll their eyes and lose interest. The commercials also made it look like it was a light romantic comedy or a chick flick where the guy meets a nice girl. What the commercials omit is that he was supposed to not have sex for Lent, or ''[[ADateWithRosiePalms do anything remotely sexual]]'', which probably would have made Matt more sympathetic to audiences. Not to mention a large part of the plot is that his friends are taking bets on whether he will make it which causes more problems [[HilarityEnsues when various people try to win the bet]]. Also, there are [[{{Fanservice}} boobs, lots and lots of boobs]].
** And don't forget the [[RapeIsOkWhenItIsFemaleOnMale rape]]!
*** [[FridgeLogic I don't think they would put that in a trailer.]]
* Another backfiring example: ''MenInBlack''. An early trailer made it look like an eerie sci-fi FX extravaganza punctuated with mild humor. In truth, humor is its greatest strength. Sadly, later trailers spoiled some of the best humor.
** The trailers also committed the common sin of including scenes (and dialogue) that were nowhere to be found in the actual film.
* The trailers for the movie version of ''{{Hitman}}'' heavily implied a religious angle that is completely absent from the film itself. The trailer narrator even blatantly lied with a claim that the protagonist was "raised by an exiled brotherhood of the Church" while showing what turns out to be a perfectly normal funeral service in a Russian Orthodox Church.
* ''StuartLittle'' is a criminal offender. Several commercials show Stuart flying a plane or fighting the cat and other cool things, but none of that happens in the film. But it does happen in the ending credits as a montage for what happens ''after'' the story is over.
*''KungPow: Enter the Fist'' had commercials in which several epic battle scenes were shown. However some of them were just a teaser for the sequel (which has yet to be released, if it ever will) after the end credits and never had any impact on the real movie plot. In reality though they were just deleted scenes.
* ''{{Adventureland}}''. Some people thought it was going to be a raunchy teen comedy, and that the trailer that played on Oxygen which played up the romance was the one that lied- after all, it surely must be yet another TokenRomance, right? Turns out, their relationship ''does'' drive the movie, and the movie as a whole was ''much'' more subtle and melancholy than was advertised. It was an excellent movie, but don't go in expecting ''{{Superbad}}'' set in an amusement park.
* ''{{Stardust}}'''s trailer focuses on the word "ooh" so much that it appears to be something like ''Witches of Eastwick'' focusing on middle aged female spellcasters who like to get naked, and the rest of the trailer at least lets you know this is somewhere in the fantasy action genre. It might have driven away its intended audience.
* ''Seven Pounds'' - the trailers only gave a small part of the plot: Will Smith's character is being TheAtoner and helping seven people (drama ensues). The ads also imply this, adding that Smith's character is an IRS agent; his atonement could be monetary. Imagine my surprise when the critics described the film as a ''romantic comedy'' [[spoiler: and Smith's atonement is donating his organs to seven people (the title refers to his heart, which is going to his love interest).]] Never trust a trailer, ads, or critics.
* ''Grandma's Boy'' was marketed in the trailer as being about a slacker who lived with his grandma and smokes weed with his stoner friend and pet monkey. Hilarious antics of the trio would presumably ensue. In reality, the film focused on the character's job as a video game tester, which appeared nowhere in the trailer. Stoner antics turn out to be quite limited.
* ''Film/StarTrek'' implied a Kirk/Uhura romance when, in actuality, [[spoiler:she's already in a relationship with Spock]].
* A ''BackToTheFuture 3'' trailer included what appeared to be Marty shooting at Doc Brown, knocking his hat off, which turns out to be two unrelated bits of the film.
** The first film was released at a time where the most successful comedies were raunchy R-rated affairs. Thus, many trailers featured the line "You mean my mom has the hots for me?!" to make it seem like such a film with a science fiction element, when the film is much more of a sci-fi comedy for all audiences with that mom thing being a subplot. RobertZemeckis and Bob Gale have spoken negatively about this in interviews.
* ''{{Film/State of Play}}'' does a good job of showing the plot of a political murder mystery, but it makes you think the victim was shot and killed by a professional assassin. She was really pushed in front of a train by a professional assassin. Someone else is shot. Both murders are early enough in the movie to not be a spoiler.
* ''[[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk The Incredible Hulk]]''. A trailer shows Dr Samson interviewing Banner in Betty Ross' house. This scene appears in neither the movie nor even in extra material from the DVD. This just causes a lot of confusion when we see that Samson is the one that turned Banner in when, given what we see in the movie, he never even should have known Banner was there.
** The second disc of the 3-Disc Special Edition DVD features the deleted scenes with Samson.
*The trailer for ''{{Hellboy}} II: The Golden Army'' implied via context that HB and the BPRD fight a stone giant. In the actual movie, the giant is just a doorway.
*The trailer for ''{{Rachel Getting Married}}'' makes the film appear to be a quirky indie comedy ala Juno or Little Miss Sunshine. Sucks for anyone who saw it expecting that and discovering it's actually a very heavy and heartwrenching drama, with many of the humorous scenes in the trailer actually not funny AT ALL in context.
*''{{The International}}'''s trailer basically marketed it as a fast-paced action movie. It's neither fast-paced or an action movie, though there is one notable and very acclaimed action sequence. The final line in the trailer is also grossly taken out of context.
*In one of the dumbest marketing moves possible, the trailer for the indie drama ''Sleepwalking'' seems like a sugary "heartwarming" family-oriented movie like what is often seen on The Hallmark Channel. Probably not the best marketing strategy for a fairly gritty R-rated movie. Unsurprisingly the movie horribly tanked at the box office.
* Trailers for ''{{Donnie Darko}}'' made it seem like the film was about an insane, homicidal teenager. Though the film teases the possibility that Donnie is crazy, it's a minor undercurrent.
* The trailers make ''DragMeToHell'' look like a straight horror film when it is really a horror-comedy in the vein of the ''EvilDead'' movies.
** Though the fact that it's directed by Sam Raimi may be a tip-off....
* The trailer for ''[[TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly The Good The Bad and The Ugly]]'' had a narrator with [[ThisIsSparta annoying diction]] continually blurting out, "The Good... The Bad... and the UGLY" over footage of the three title characters. Unfortunately, because the original Italian title ('Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo') translates literally as 'The Good, The Ugly, The Bad', Angel Eyes and Tuco were swapped in the trailer, making poor Lee Van Cleef appear to be the 'ugly'.
** Eli Wallach must have been flattered, though.
* Many of the trailers for ''{{Sunshine}}'' made it appear as a typical "ill-fated excursion" movie, except [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]] (which, to be fair, is shared many elements with). The trailers didn't advertise a movie that provided a thoughtful, insightful character study of a group of people tasked with sacrificing their lives for the good of mankind.
* [[TheGunheart This troper]] recalls a TV spot on the Sci-Fi Channel for {{Brazil}} that consisted entirely of scenes from [[ImagineSpot Sam's dream sequences]], without any hint of the Orwellian future the movie actually takes place in.
* The trailers for ''{{Beetlejuice}}'' make Michael Keaton appear to be the main character, even making him sound like the top-billed star. In reality, the lead characters are Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin; Keaton only has 20 minutes of screentime.
** Of course, ''naming'' the movie after his character probably didn't help, either.
* The trailer for ''{{Spaced Invaders}}'', while indeed marketing the film for what it was (a silly family action/comedy), featured '''''completely different dialog''''' than what was in the film.
* The trailers for ''[[Film/TheSiege The Siege]]'', in addition to lots of spoilers, also misleadingly push Bruce Willis' character and set his martial law as the main focus of the film. Martial law is only in the second half of the actual movie and Willis has a small (albeit important) supporting role. In addition, they also make it look like an action movie - it isn't.
* The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc8XXv3pl10 trailer]] for ''Nothing'' makes it out to be a psychological thriller/horror/sci-fi much in the same vein as Vincenzo Natali's earlier film, {{Cube}}, when in actuality it is a lighthearted buddy comedy that is almost nothing like that.
* Trailers for ''{{The Fountain}}'' make it look like an epic fantasy/sci-fi adventure, when in fact it is the tragic story of a man whose wife is dying of cancer. Anything supernatural that occurs is strongly implied to have taken place inside the heads of either the protagonist or his wife.
* MoulinRouge: ThisTroper remembers an Italian newspaper saying that the main character, the one which has just arrived in the Montmartre district, is Toulouse-Lautrec (Toulouse-Lautrec is indeed in the film, played by John Leguizamo, but he's not the main character, and already lives in Montmartre at the beginning of the film).
* The entire ad campaign for ''Hollywood Homicide'' had no idea how to sell the film (although given the film was an unmarketable failure, that's not surprising). The US trailer was reasonably close to the tone of the movie, however it only focused on the rap murders and Calden wanting to take acting. Calden's acting is a minor subplot. That trailer had no mention of Gavilan's real estate subplot (a more prominent subplot), the internal affairs investigation or the fact that the main characters had secondary-jobs. And just to add insult to injury, alternate takes were used to make the film funnier and much of the last 20 minutes is shown to make it seem action-packed. For the international campaign, the film was sold as a straight action movie (which it REALLY isn't), complete with a trailer that played up the action and sex scenes. The film has relatively little action and only two sex scenes, one of which is Harrison Ford chomping a donut mid-coitus... The TV ads for both campaigns didn't help either. As big a mess as the actual film.
* A Swedish TV-guide blurb for ''Madea's Family Reunion'' categorizes it as a drama-comedy, with the comedy being [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the title character trying to organize a family reunion]] while taking care of a teenager and the drama being from helping her nieces with love troubles. While ''technically'' true, one niece's "love troubles" turns out to be her fiancé hitting and abusing her with her mothers silent approval. The other niece can't trust men because [[spoiler: her mother's former husband [[RapeAsDrama raped her as a child]] so said mother wouldn't have to give up her life in luxury.]] Did I mention the blurb made it seem like the film is light-hearted?
* Any trailer for a movie with a gay male main character or gay male main plot will not include the character's sexuality in the trailer even if it is the crux of the film, and if possible, even show the main character kissing a woman even if it was just a scene that is taken out of context to mislead audiences into thinking it is yet another heterosexual romance movie. This usually does not apply to lesbians. Examples include, but are not limited to:
** ''RunningWithScissors''
** ''BrokebackMountain''
** ''TakingWoodstock''
** ''Alexander''
** ''A Single Man''
* The trailer for ''{{District 9}}'' implies that the aliens just want to go home, and the humans won't let them. Sure, in the film the aliens are shoved into a slum, but the 'going home' sentiment just isn't there among most of them. Plus, the scene featuring an alien being interrogated isn't in the film and was fabricated totally for the trailer.
* The trailer for {{Privates on Parade}} featured footage of John Cleese doing a silly walk on a parade ground, making it look like a wacky Pythonesque comedy. In fact, the silly walk scene was edited in at the very end of the movie and through most of it, John Cleese is actually fairly restrained and a serious character.
* The trailer for the made for TV film ''Disaster on the Coastliner'' shows [[spoiler: two trains colliding head on. The collision does not occur in the actual film]].
* The trailer for ''InglouriousBasterds'' has a minor example in that it implies a direct confrontation between Brad Pitt's character and Hitler; the more glaring example would be that they paid minimal attention to the "theatre-owner's revenge" plot, instead focusing on the squad's scalp-happy shenanigans.
* Television ads for {{Disney}}'s dub of ''{{Ponyo}}'' play up most of the comedy bits and even use the last few seconds of the film out of context. While it is understandable that the comedy is more advertised than the film's drama (which there is definitely more of than comedy), considering the very young target audience, this troper will never understand WHY THEY HAD TO USE THE END OF THE FILM IN ADVERTISEMENTS. (Admittedly, it's impossible to really tell exactly where in the film the scene would fit unless you actually saw it). Also, the commercials use bits of dialogue both out of context and played over completely different scenes than they are in the actual film. (No, fish!Ponyo does not say "I will be a human too!" while still in the bucket.)
** Also, there's a part where Ponyo's mother calls "Good luck Ponyo!" while in the movie she actually says "good luck ''Lisa''", to Sastuke's mother.
** Also, the teaser trailer made it seem as if Ponyo's father tells her that she is the only one who can save the world and then releases her and her wave running somehow is related to said world-saving. In the movie, the lines her father says are actually directed to Satsuke (who can only save the world by acceping Ponyo) and the wave running has nothing to do with Ponyo saving the world.
* ''Outside Providence'' was not a wacky Farrelly Bros. comedy, despite them pushing the connection (one of them wrote the story, in truth) and showing the funny scenes. In actuality it was more of a coming-of-age dramedy.
* ''[[BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Batman: Mask of the Phantasm]]'' made it look like it was building to a confrontation between the two title characters. When Phantasm really wasn't a new Big Bad at all.
* ''{{Cloverfield}}'' could either be considered as a subversion or played straight, consider the entire point of the trailer is to leave the audience paying just to find out what on earth this film is about.
* ''{{The History Boys}}'' is primarily about a group of working-class boys trying for Oxford and Cambridge, and their teachers' struggle between different schools of teaching. The trailer treated like this shiny, happy coming-of-age story. To be fair, this all is important, but it ALSO leaves out a major chunk of the film dealing with homosexuality, which is what most viewers actually take from it.
* The film ''The Family Stone'' was advertised as a romantic comedy. It really isn't, being instead a family drama with a rather bittersweet angle. And while there's romance involved, it's not between the characters advertised in the trailer.
* ''[[TheMummyTrilogy The Mummy]]'' was advertised as a straight-up horror film, instead of the action-comedy it was.
* ''Whiteout'' is insinuated in the trailer to be a sci-fi style horror film. [[spoiler: It's more along the lines of a slasher/thriller film.]]
* ''Sunshine Cleaning'''s trailer makes the film look a bit more light-hearted and comedic than it actually is. It also splices together dialogue from different parts of the film to make it look like they're part of one scene, though this is something even more honest trailers do frequently.
* Hey everybody! [[SarcasmMode It's the latest and greatest comedy]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS_fK7oHB9Y Next Day Air!]] This hilarious parody (starring Donald Faison) of the life of drug dealers and mailmen will leave you rolling around on the floor struggling to catch your breath! Except for the fact that [[spoiler: the length of the trailer amounts to maybe half of Donald Faison's screentime, and the main story follows two unlucky criminals who, by luck, acquire some drugs and are pursued by a drug lord who seeks to kill them. [[UnderStatement It has a violent ending.]]]]
* The trailer for the film version of WhereTheWildThingsAre makes it look like it'd be a fun, cute kid's adventure movie about a little boy who befriends a bunch of monsters. The actual film, however, is [[{{Understatement}} pretty depressing.]]
*The trailer for the 1945 film ''The Body Snatcher'' emphasizes that it stars both famed horror actors Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. While Karloff does have a prominent role Lugosi has a minor part as a janitor.
* The TransformersFilmSeries has plenty of this as well. The original teaser trailers for both films made them look far darker in tone than what they actually were, especially the second film, which really was supposed to be the darker installment.. it ended up filled with humor and some of the most juvenile comedy available. Needless to say, the first film was much better in this regard.
** Another thing, is the cutting together of scenes. The theatrical trailer for the first film showed Lennox panicking whilst saying 'No,no,no,no,no, MOVE!!' The trailer made it look like he was shouting at Sam because [[TheStarscream Starscream]] was literally about to land right on top of him. In the actual film, his concern is still over Starscream, only it's because he's making a missile attack run on Ironhide and Bumblebee.
*** Similarly, in a TV spot for the sequel, it showed Lennox hiding behind cover whilst saying 'look who showed up!' and then cutting to a shot of Starscream angrily smashing a hut. In the film, he was referring to Sam and Mikaela, who had just reached the same area of cover.
** The trailers for the second film showed Starscream looming over Sam in an abandoned factory, then cutting to a shot of him being pinned down by a mechanical hand. Some assumed the hand belonged to Starscream. It didn't. It was Megatron's.
*** Though this was probably because this is back when they were still trying to cover up that Megatron was coming back (which later trailers didn't bother with).
** One particular trailer also showed the [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome epic]] forest fight between Optimus Prime against Megatron, Starscream and Grindor. A clip of Megatron kicking Optimus in the face (and shattering his faceplate) was shown and then it cut to Optimus being launched halfway across the forest floor. Some thought that Megatron's kick was so powerful, that it was what caused this to happen (which would have been pretty BadAss). In the film itself, the kick merely [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin shatters his faceplate]]. His brief aerial trip was caused by Megatron shooting him point-blank with his [[{{BFG}} fusion cannon]].
* Some TV spots for ''GranTorino'' make you think it's about a GrumpyOldMan becoming a vigilante, as aggressive as [[DirtyHarry another]] ClintEastwood role. If you don't count "saving" a girl from assaulting gangster, only in the final minutes he does ForGreatJustice acts.
* The ''{{Wanted}}'' movie trailer has the male and female leads kissing. It looked like they were going to be romantically involved but it was just a fake kiss to show up his ex-girlfriend, and their only kiss in the movie.
* ''WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' trailers had the scene where Roger gets a load of bricks dropped on him, but with a line of dialog that occured slightly earlier in the scene. Some trailers included footage that was cut from the film like the "I'm a pig!" scene.
* The trailer for the Pixar movie "WallE" made the movie look like an action adventure movie in which the last robot on Earth must save the planet. Actually the movie is a love story about two robots who find love.
* [[OrSoIHeard As this troper understands]], trailers and commercials for MillionDollarBaby made it out as a sports drama about a female {{Rocky}}. However, that's not what the film is about at all. It's about the struggle she has after her crippling injury which [[spoiler: ultimately drives her to ask Clint Eastwood to end her life]]. As I also understand, she's not even the main character, but rather, Clint Eastwood's character is.
* It is highly unlikely that the 2009 ''SherlockHolmes'' movie will be anything but a horrendous case of AdaptationDecay, but nonetheless, the continuity of the trailers features some of the most blatantly out-of-context stitching-together of clips ever witnessed.
* The trailers for the 2009 adaptation of ''{{A Christmas Carol}}'' made it look like a goofy, kiddy version of the story. The actual movie however, was surprisingly [[Main/AdaptationDistillation faithful]] and kept most of the original's story intact, including the {{nightmare fuel}}.
* GeorgeClooney's latest film ''Up In The Air'' has Clooney saying many life-affirming quotes in voiceover, making it appear that he's some sort of frequent-flier-mile-happy life coach ''a la Love Happens''. A later trailer reveals [[spoiler: the character is the complete opposite: he's "hired by companies to fire people when they don't have the balls to do it themselves", and the young airline stewardess-like woman is his protege.]] I don't doubt that ''this'' trailer is probably misleading as well.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* A trailer for the newest season of ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' used a shot of Olivia looking surprised with a shot of Elliot and Dani about to kiss, adding up to sexual tension at its max. In the actual episode, Olivia never saw the kiss, which was just an [[AccidentalKiss accidental quickie]] after the two had a few drinks. The trailer made more fans {{squee}} than the episode.
** ''SVU'' does this a lot, actually, putting small shots together in trailers or just taking them out of context and making them seem far more interesting than they actually are.
** Another particularly bad ''SVU'' example: the trailer showed identical twin boys pressed against opposite sides of a wall, as the voiceover said "How can they tell which one committed the murder... when they have ''identical DNA?!''" Not only was this not what the episode was about at all, not only was the aforementioned visual the last shot of the episode, ''not only'' was it that this spoiled the major twist of the episode (that the murder suspect's sister had been [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory born a boy and raised as a girl after a botched circumcision]]), but it also spoiled the additional twist at the end of the episode (when the two collaborate to kill the doctor responsible). In fact, the question that the voiceover dramatically asks in the trailer is never even answered in the episode, and it's strongly suggested they'll go free.
* Nowadays, "OnTheNext" TV trailers will often include footage and plot points that don't actually appear for several weeks yet. This is particularly [[TVTropesDrinkingGame egregious]] in ''PrisonBreak''-style shows with heavy continuity, as it can give the impression of the story progressing more quickly than it really does. ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' is a major offender here; for example, it incorporated material from the entire first season into the trailer for the second episode.
** {{Smallville}} is a worse offender. There have been several trailers that have cut one line of dialog into clips from several seasons past. The trailer for the seventh season finale was entirely a clip of Lex Luthor looking at the Fortress of Solitude. Not only was this teased two weeks previous, it was cut entirely from the episode it was shot for. Ironically, when a recent episode decided to reveal the adaptation of the Superman Suite, many fans believed they were being played (due to the show's "No Tights, No Flights" rule which is the whole reason why it took eight seasons to make something remotely close to Superman's tights) no one believed it. But the footage was used in the episode being teased.
* In the middle of the Jasmine arc of ''{{Angel}}'', an OnTheNext centered around Angel and Fred kissing, with the announcer going on about how the crisis will drive them together... in the actual episode, the kiss turns out to be a FakeOutMakeOut and no romance comes of it.
* A trailer for the 2007 ''DoctorWho'' episode "The Family Of Blood" showed [[spoiler:John Smith getting married and having children. In the episode itself, this was just a Last Temptation to the life he could have if he didn't turn back into his usual self.]]
** The ad for "The Doctor's Daughter" put way too much emphasis on a blonde girl performing handsprings through a row of lasers. The scene was actually just [[spoiler:a three-second filler with no importance to the plot whatsoever (except to further showcase the amazing talents of the Doctor's genetic daughter.)]]
** Let's not get started on "Turn Left"; let's just say that all the ''Doctor Who'' trailers tell us these days is the title of the episode and a few big shocks that WON'T be happening in the episode.
*** This only applies to the UK though. On the Sci-Fi Channel, [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil the trailers frequently give away huge twists]].
** The Sci-Fi trailer for "Evolution of the Daleks" showed the Doctor standing below a hovering Dalek urging it to kill him [[spoiler: followed immediately by a shot of someone standing in the same place, in the same position (arms spread, looking up) being blasted by the Dalek. Of course, this wasn't the Doctor but a secondary character, though you couldn't tell because of the "glowing skeleton" effect that victims of a Dalek blast get in the new series. Anyone watching the trailer would swear the Doctor was just executed.]]
** "My name is Rose Tyler [[spoiler: and this is the story of how I died]]." Two words: [[spoiler:LoopholeAbuse]].
* One ''StarTrekVoyager'' episode trailer was particularly bad in this respect, being designed around the line "He violated me" in such a way as to make it sound very much as though Seven was going to be raped by a crew member; the trailer even featured a "Who did it?" sequence with flashes of various male crew members' faces. The actual episode, however, was just about an alien culture trapping her in a laboratory for study and stealing some of her nanoprobes.
** This might be justifable, though, when you consider the episode goes a little DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything with the plot. With borg nanoprobes replacing date rape.
** In regards to ''Voyager'', a website designed to nitpick the show refers to this phenomenon as PAL, for Previews Always Lie. [[http://www.nitcentral.com/members/glossary.htm#pal See here.]]
** In a comparatively minor case, SPIKE's trademark preview for ''Voyager'' makes it out to be an action-packed, phasers-firing thrill ride. "Network for Men" and all that.
*** ''Voyager'''s action quotient is such that it's not entirely unwarranted. Now, when they tried to do the same with ''[[StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]''...
** A trailer for some season 7 ''Voyager'' episode during its run that featured Kim saying "Ambassador Spock" in a shocked voice, leading me and many in the audience to tune in in hopes that everyone's favorite Vulcan would show up. As it turns out, Spock was mentioned briefly in one conversation and that 'shocked take' wasn't even in the episode.
** Another trailer similarly name-dropped Captain Picard; the interview review The Cynic pithily remarked "dropping Picard's name will not get them Picard's ratings."
**The trailer for one ''DeepSpaceNine'' episode showed the Enterprise being destroyed... or so we thought. Turns out it's a ship of the same class, called the ''Odyssey'' (Justified, maybe, in that WordOfGod says that the point of it happening in the episode was to tell the viewers "This might very well happen to the ''Enterprise''" and to make them think of the familiar ship in that situation).
**The trailer for the ''Enterprise'' episode "Cogenitor", about an alien species with 3 genders, made it look like a comedic sex romp by focusing solely on the brief comic relief moments in the episode, such as Phlox offering to show Trip photos of tri-gendered sex and Malcolm awkwardly flirting with an alien. In actuality, it's one of the darkest episodes in ''Trek'' history, raising complex questions about human rights and moral relativism, capped off with a deeply tragic ending.
** Final ''StarTrek'' spin-off example: UK TV channel Virgin 1 markets ''StarTrekEnterprise'' on the basis of the handful of relatively sexy moments that make up the 4 seasons. While it might have featured more blatant sexual situations than the previous ''StarTrek'' series, the show was still pretty tame by most modern standards.
* During the early 00s, the British SoapOpera ''{{Eastenders}}'' featured a number of intentionally misleading trailers. For example, one suggested that Saskia would kill club owner Steve; when the actual episode rolled around, the exact opposite happened. Much later, after Matthew was framed by Steve for Saskia's murder, a specially filmed trailer suggested that Matthew would get his revenge by setting up explosive death traps -- in reality, his actual revenge plan was slightly less violent.
* In a particularly [[TVTropesDrinkingGame egregious]] example, {{FOX}}'s promo monkeys tried to make a contestant's brief moment of discomfort on ''Don't Forget the Lyrics'' much more dramatic than it actually was. [[http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=3155892&view=findpost=8540647 (Source)]]
** And also [[http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=3155892&view=findpost&p=8854345 promoting the same show]], they managed to combine this with TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The promos said that a contestant would win more money than anyone else, and said contestant only actually ''tied'' for the biggest win.
* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''ArrestedDevelopment'', in which the clips at the end of each episode were almost ''never'' actually featured in the next, but sometimes became important in their own right.
** Also, in one third-season episode, trailers advertised 3-D, that "the shocking final moments" would be live, and that "[[TonightSomeoneDies one of these people will die]]". Well, they did come through! ...In underwhelming ways:
*** On the 3D, it lasts for about one shot.
*** The old racist lady dies. The narrator made a point to mention it.
*** For the final scene, only that one 5 second part was done live.
* A preview for the ''{{Lost}}'' episode "Stranger in a Strange Land" promised that three huge questions would be answered in it. These turned out to be the meaning of Jack's tattoos, what happened to the children the Others kidnapped and what happened to Cindy the flight attendant. Those last two have the same answer so many viewers argued they shouldn't count as separate questions, and it's not like many people were chomping at the bit about the first one either. The producers immediately said they never intended the episode to be one that was full of reveals like that, and blamed the network for unduly raising the viewers' hopes when it became one of the show's most unpopular episodes.
**A preview for the episode "Outlaws" made it look like Sawyer was pointing a gun at Jack. The clips of Sawyer pointing the gun and the clips of Jack looking scared were actually taken from two entirely different scenes. Sawyer spent the entire episode hunting a freakin' boar.
* The marketing for ''{{Kings}}'' ignored the heavy religious overtones and the fact that the story was based loosely on that of King David. NBC apparently was afraid that religious audiences would find fault with their retelling, and that secular viewers wouldn't want to watch a show with its basis in the Bible.
* A preview for an episode of ''{{ER}}'' where a main character seems to suffer a very serious heart attack, with ominous music and worried onlookers. In the actual episode it turns out to simply be gas.
* At the end of a season finale for ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', there was a long preview hyping the next season's premiere, saying that Buffy would face her deadliest, strongest, most legendary foe ever... {{Dracula}}. The hype blitz continued during the entire off season, with every ''Buffy'' rerun containing a promo for the Buffy vs. Dracula showdown, commercials for it even ran in unconnected commercial spots, often during primetime. In all, it was built up as Dracula obviously being the BigBad for the coming season, or perhaps even multiple seasons, so epic was the ad campaign for the upcoming meeting. When the episode finally came... it was a one-shot, essentially a gag episode, where Dracula's arrival was treated largely as a joke and Buffy doesn't actually defeat him, but essentially ''mocks'' him into laying down and playing dead. He was never heard from on the TV series again, reappearing only in comics once or twice. Hard to say whether it was just a really deceptive ad campaign or a rather mean-spirited TakeThat.
** To be fair, ''all'' Buffy seasons after the first had featured surprise supervillains, so serious fans would have known better.
* There's a trailer for ''{{Supernatural}}'' which makes it look like Dean set Jessica on fire.
** And let's not forget the one that makes it look like the Crossroads Demon seduces Dean. And the episode summary even said that.
* The trailer for the US version of ''LifeOnMars'' is shot like a ''StarskyAndHutch'' parody. Seriously, watch it.
** This seems entirely in keeping with the UK version.
* A trailer for an episode of ''Hell's Kitchen'' Season 4 did a rather spectacular version of this. The trailer showed that one chef sliced off a portion of his thumb, the team couldn't find it, and mentioned that two professional critics were attending that night's service - with the narrator all but saying that the severed portion of finger would end up on a critic's plate. As it turned out, the finger incident happened in the first part of the show, and was already resolved by the time dinner service rolled around - there was never any risk involved.
** The trailer for the final episode of Season 1 featured a clip of Michael yelling "Piss off!", but it was almost made to look like he was fighting with Ralph; when the episode actually aired, it was revealed that Michael was simply imitating Chef Ramsey's mannerisms, and Ralph was laughing along with it.
** Season 5 does this a ''lot''. Near the end there's a cliffhanger that's resolved immediately the next week.
* Bravo is notoriously bad for doing this with their reality TV shows. Misleading episode descriptions, cut n' paste editing, mismatched dialogue--they've used every trick in the book.
* An interesting case on ''{{Battlestar Galactica}}'': the trailer featured D'Anna telling Roslin that she's the final Cylon who has yet to be revealed. However, the cut revealing who she was talking to caused some speculation that Roslin actually wasn't the person she said it to. It turned out D'Anna ''was'' talking to Roslin, but was just playing a prank on her. Of course, had Roslin been the final Cylon this would have been a major case of both TrailersAlwaysSpoil and LyingCreator (as showrunner and producer Ron Moore had officially declared that Roslin is ''not'' a Cylon).
** A trailer for the second half of Season 3 had Dee saying, "I'm going to bring Starbuck back to Apollo" in a cheery way. In the actual episode "Rapture", she said it with resignation.
** A trailer for the first half of Season 3 finishes with Baltar begging desperately for Gaeta to shoot him. In "Exodus Part 2," he is way calmer about the request.
* A preview for an episode of ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' revolving around the team being trapped in an unpleasant version of a LotusEaterMachine, with the trailer using Carter's line "How do we know this is real?" as if it were a serious question and dramatic concern. In the actual episode, this is just the set-up for a final joke to cap off what's otherwise a particularly dark episode.
**For several weeks there, the trailers for ''StargateAtlantis'' alluded to replicator involvement. "Or is it a Replicator trap?" "Is he really back from the dead, or is it another Replicator?" Needless to say, Replicators weren't even mentioned in those episodes.
* The trailers for the NBC miniseries ''Merlin'' implied there was going to be a big huge battle between the title character and [[TheFairFolk Queen Mab]]. In reality, while there was some shrieking, a few fireballs thrown, and other cool magical effects, the whole thing actually ended with [[spoiler:[[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve everyone just turning their backs on her and forgetting her]], [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly refusing to believe in her]]]]. A very effective and creative way to defeat a villain, but it was probably rather disappointing for those who wanted to see Mab turned into a crispy critter.
* On the subject of ''{{Merlin}}'', a trailer for one episode of the BBC series had Merlin dramatically reveal to the court that he was a wizard. In the actual episode, no one believed him and the scene had no impact on the plot.
** The trailer for another episode made it look very, very much like Arthur was going to find out about Merlin's magic. And just before the episode started, the announcer said 'it had to happen eventually!'. Everyone got very excited about this. Turns out what Arthur saw was just ambiguous enough for him to believe Merlin hadn't done anything.
* ''TheSopranos'' tended to do this a lot, with the trailers playing up the mob violence that was rarely the center of the upcoming episode.
** The trailer for the final episode on A&E promised "You won't believe how it ends!" In case you were one of the people who missed the controversy at the time, [[spoiler:[[NoEnding it didn't.]] The showjust cut to black, leading many people to call their cable company and complain.]]
* CBS had a promo for an episode of CSINY, "All In The Family" with Danny shielding a woman from another person with a gun, then the screen cutting to black and the sound of a gunshot. In reality, [[spoiler: he manadged to convince the person with the gun to not kill him or the woman he was protecting (Rikki Sandoval, mother of Reuben, the boy who was killed) and no one was shot.]] the gun sound was in fact a sound effect added in.
* Sci-Fi Channel actually used expectations about never trusting a trailer to its advantage for the fourth episode of season three of ''Eureka'', and at the same time did slip in a little bit of a lie. The trailer proclaimed "One of these people won't make it through [the episode]", including flashing up a character we'd never seen before, clearly a one-shot throwaway character, using your expectation that they threw him into the preview to be technically correct when one of "these characters" didn't make it through. [[spoiler: Well, he didn't. But neither did Nathan Stark, series regular.]]
* A rather dated example: The original "On the next" trailer for the ''Series/WarOfTheWorlds'' episode "Candle in the Night" showed the aliens desperately tracking a rogue device to stop it falling into the hands of the humans, asking, "Can the team use the aliens' own episode against them? A View to a kill, on the next episode of ''War of the Worlds''!". Answer: No. Because they're ''not even looking for it'': it's a BottleEpisode about the team organizing a surprise birthday party. The events of the trailer refer to a throwaway B-plot about the aliens trying to find a lost probe.
* A trailer for a ''{{Dexter}}'' episode asked "Which one of these suspects is the ice truck killer". The "suspects" seem to have been chosen completely at random, two are very well established characters who couldn't be the killer barring some bizarre TwistEnding. Another has the notable handicap of being ''dead''. The [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil process of elimination]] would seem to point to the fourth suspect who, having been only introduced in the previous episode, seems the natural candidate anyway, but since whoever made the trailer has clearly not watched a second of the show it would probably be hopelessly naive to think so. Another on asked if this was the episode were Dexter would be found out, which only did not happen, but had absolutely nothing to do with the plot.
*Australia's Network Ten does this with all its comercials. Another example is its adds for ''{{Burn Notice}}'', which always end by asking if this is the episode where Michael's plan fails, followed by footage of an unrelated car exploding from later in that episode.
* Australian television ''always'' markets shows like ''The World's Worst Drivers'' as if they're comedies, when almost all take the form of overly tense ''When Animals Attack''-style shows.
* In the trailer for the fifth season opener of ''GreysAnatomy'', Nurse Rose told Dr. McDreamy that "I'm carrying your child." In the actual episode, [[spoiler: she immediately follows those words with an admission that she was only kidding.]]
* Happens far too often on ''{{House}}''. For example, the trailer for an episode during the Tritter arc had the following exchange:
-->'''House''': This test isn't exactly FDA-approved.
-->'''Wilson''': You committed a crime! Do something!
The reality, however, was more like this (somewhat paraphrased):
-->'''House''': This test isn't exactly FDA-approved. [the test goes exactly as planned with no ill effects]
-->'''House''': [much later] Hey, Wilson, Tritter is still bugging me about my drug habits, which, AsYouKnow, I did some illegal stuff to support.
-->'''Wilson''': You committed a crime! Do something!
-->'''House''': I don't wanna, cause I'm a JerkAss.
**Also, the [[http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1545148137?bctid=1861222283 trailer]] for the season 5 ep. Lucky Thirteen made Thirteen's sex scene look way hotter than it was
**Can't forget the various romances that also were teased to come to a culmination including House making out with Cameron in Season 3. [[spoiler: She turned out to only be trying to distract him long enough to stab him with a needle to get a blood test]]
**Another part of the trailer for this episode shows House saying he has brain cancer [[spoiler: when later in the episode he reveals it was a con to get drugs implanted in his brain]]
**The end of Season Five did this the most because all the revelatory stuff it showed such as House sexing up Cuddy [[spoiler: was solved very quickly because it was all a narcotic induced hallucination]]
***This trope has been so overdone for House, anytime you see House getting "some" in a trailer it would be safe to assume shenanigans.
* Season 5 of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations was bloated with this. Every episode pointed out that he was going to have a bad time at his destination, but on the actual show, it was always just a minor moment of discomfort that took place in the first half of the episode, surrounded by Tony loving the place.
* A OnTheNext trailer for ''BeingHuman'' showed (in order): A woman looking into her hand mirror and realising that [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Mitchell has no reflection]], A TorchesAndPitchforks mob of neighbours shouting and throwing things at the outside of the main characters house, and George saying "We were kidding ourselves to believe we could fit in here. We.. are MONSTERS!". The not so subtle implication was that the Vampire, Werewolf and Ghost would all be outed and they'd have to deal with the ramifications of that. In the episode itself Mitchell was accused of pedophilia because the womans son accidentally borrowed a vampire porn/snuff film from him. TheMasquerade remaines unbroken, except for the boy and his mum finding out about Mitchell at the end [[StatusQuoIsGod before promptly leaving and telling the neighbours that they made a mistake]].
* In the network promo for the Season 4 episode of TheWestWing "Election Night," there is a shot of Democratic strategist Will Bailey standing outside the campaign office in a thunderous rainstorm, shouting "NOOO" to the high heavens. In the actual episode, he is in fact shouting "NOW" in an attempt, however serious, to predict (and possibly cause?) the torrential rain that begins seconds later, thus leading to depressed voter turnout and increasing the chances that his liberal candidate, who is dead, might actually win in conservative Orange County.
* A trailer for an episode of the New Zealand TV show GoGirls has a main character being told by her boyfriend that she's fat, ugly, and that he's gay. In actuality, this was a daydream of what she was expecting him to say-- what he actually does is ask her to marry him.
* A {{Desperate Housewives}} preview ended by promising "a twist so shocking, we can only hint at it," followed by the first line from the chorus of Kate Perry's "I Kissed a Girl": "I kissed a girl, and I liked it." The obvious implication was that one of the housewives would become a lesbian, or at least question her sexuality for a while. The episode did at least follow through with ''two'' lengthy girl on girl kisses, but it was part of a minor comic relief subplot where Susan's lesbian boss mistakes her for being interested, and the misunderstanding is entirely cleared up at the end never to be brought up again.
* The fourth season of {{OZ}} went on hiatus following the stunning death of Simon Adebisi at the hands of the formerly pacifistic Kareem Said. When the show returned, one of the promos featured Said shouting "Adebisi lives!" In the actual episode the line didn't signify that Adebisi was actually alive; Said said it after killing someone else as a statement that his years in prison had turned him into a violent murderer just like Adebisi. It was still a powerful scene, but the previews had viewers feeling ripped off anyway.
* Trailer for the seventh season finale of {{Monk}}. Narrator: "You'll never believe what he finds [at the site of his wife's murder]..." What did he find? [[spoiler: Nothing. In fact, the episode was about him admitting that there wasn't anything to find.]] Though to be fair, no one believed it.
* Parodied to extreme in the {{Arrested Development}} episode "S.O.B.s". And in its trailer, of course.
* The Season 5 finale of {{Medium}} is being billed as the main character's "last vision". Which it is...on NBC. The show is moving to CBS next fall.
* During the 2009 opilio crab season, the preview for the next episode of ''Deadliest Catch'' included the captain of the ''Cornelia Marie'' calling for a Coast Guard helicopter, leading the viewer to assume an emergency. The reality? The captain was calling to ask what the ice conditions were like while preparing to leave the harbor
* ''HellsKitchen'' gets very bad with this when it comes to showing episodes for next week. They usually show clips with the high points in the episode in order to get people excited for the next episode, but when the next episode does roll around, it usually isn't as dramatic as the preview makes it to be.
* The trailers for ''SecretGirlfriend'' implied that the show would primarily be about two pervy slacker guys trying to get women to perform activities of a sexual or suggestive nature, completely ignoring the fact that the ''viewer'' is experiencing the ''actual'' protagonist's experiences (kind of like ''BeingJohnMalkovich'') and is about the nameless protagonist's attempts to deal with a psycho near-ex-girlfriend who won't stay broken up, a cute girl he likes but wants to protect from the first woman, and the zany antics of his two best friends (the aforementioned slackers).
* Cracked.com has this trope listed as #1 of the "5 Cheap Tricks TV Shows Use To Keep You Watching" found [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16593_p2.html here]].
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8grPGqH3IHI This preview]] for the ''{{NCIS}}'' season six finale made it look like Ziva was going to kill Tony on her father's orders. Pretty shifty of CBS, but at least the episode itself was good.
* The trailers for Swedish 90s miniseries ''Nattens barn'' made it seem like a vampire/supernatural story, while it was in fact a perfectly realistic series about a RomanticTwoGirlFriendship between two {{Goth}}s.
* In its early days, Sky One used to have a single set of clips for an entire series which they played every week, regardless of which episode was to be shown at the advertised time. The result being of course that the episode usually had nothing to do with the clips you saw in the ad.
* Can't say anything for the trailers (I wasn't a fan at the time), but the Verizon [=FiOS=] info for a particular episode of ''{{Bones}}'' states that the cast is working undercover at a bar to help solve a case; additionally, ads hyped the fact that [[{{UST}} Booth and Bones would wind up in bed]]. Actually [[spoiler: the episode was AllJustADream because a comatose Booth was hearing Bones read the rough draft of her latest novel and his mind was inserting his friends as various characters, including himself and Bones as a HappilyMarried couple.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Almost every Playstation 1 game that contained CGI cutscenes was made to look like that's what the gameplay would be like. While this wasn't exclusive to PSX1, the storage capacity of the CD compared to the relatively weak real-time rendering power led to this happening a lot.
* Taken to a science by ''MetalGear'' director HideoKojima, most notably in the campaign for ''Metal Gear Solid'' 2 and 3. In ''[=MGS2=]'', the main character was going to be the new character Raiden, but the general expectation of the audience, furthered by very selective news releases, was that it would be Solid Snake. Konami released extensive gameplay information and footage, but only from the game's prologue segment, when the player really does control Snake. When video was shown from later in the story (when Raiden would be the main character), footage was edited together, using out-of-context clips and dialogue, to almost completely hide the real main character from the audience -- except for a few teasing flashes of his face behind the mask of a ninja. One scene showing Snake fighting the boss Fortune was footage from a hypothetical sequence serving as a metaphor for the MindScrew the main character was suffering, and the real battle was fought by Raiden.
** And they still attempt to maintain it years after release, on a rerelease of the first 3 games, the [http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/PopBackofbox.aspx?Product_ID=69111 back of the box] makes it out as staring Snake.
** [=MGS3=] parodies this in the very beginning, where when you first land in the jungle(after selecting "I liked [=MGS2=]" from the New Game menu), Naked Snake is wearing a convincing "Raiden" mask, likely causing more than a few fans' hearts to skip a beat.
* The ''[=MGS3=]'' trailers do this trick again, but portray final boss The Boss as a heartless BigBad, nearly killing Snake and shooting out his eye, causing him to wake up in a cell from a terrible nightmare. In game, the Big Bad was Volgin, who was only shown in the trailer once; the eye was not shot out by The Boss -- she merely pointed a gun at him; and the nightmare wakeup was from a near-comedy sequence resulting from a DreamSequence minigame.
** Hideo Kojima claims he hates making trailers, because TrailersAlwaysSpoil. He says the only way out is to make deliberately misleading trailers - hence his embracing of this trope.
* ''MetalGearSolid 4'' trailers showed Snake in the Middle East, quietly committing suicide. The scene in the finished game was - ''modified''. The most hilariously [[TVTropesDrinkingGame egregious]] example is the so-wrong-it's-awesome 'Summer Blockbuster' trailer, which cuts the gameplay footage together to make it look like a testosterone-pumping action flick. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC_Ppi1v6wM&feature=fvst "Evil is powerful - but courage is Solid"]], booms the narrator, before Snake proudly proclaims to the narrator, begging for [[InAWorld one man to save us all]], "Sounds like the perfect job for me". In context, he was responding to Meryl saying that the only person who'd go on a specific mission is someone who [[DrivenToSuicide wanted only to die]]. After playing the game you'll either find the trailer [[FunnyAneurysmMoment sick]] or [[DeadBabyComedy squickily]] [[ReverseFunnyAneurysm hilarious]].
* ''{{Disgaea}}'' both lampshades and subverts this trope within the game itself. The main storyline of the game is broken up into fourteen different episodes. At the end of each episode, Etna narrates a ridiculous trailer for the "upcoming episode", where each one is for a different off-the-wall series starring her as the main character. Examples include "Hyper Dimensional Demon Gal Etna", "Space Detective Etna", and "Fire Chef Cooking Gal Etna".
** It subverts the trope when one of the crazy trailers is, of course, an entirely accurate preview for the upcoming episode.
*** Then it subverts it ''again'' when Etna [[SarcasmFailure gives an]] ''[[SarcasmFailure entirely serious]]'' [[SarcasmFailure description of the final episode...]] And the entire cast starts panicking about how this is some sort of harbinger of the apocalypse.
*** To understand how over the top the trailers could get, Etna announce in one that the [[EverythingIsBetterWithPenguins Prinnies]] will [[FusionDance fuse]] to transform into [[HumongousMecha Pringer X]]. Not only that but they go as far as showing you in game screenshot of your characters fighting and being attacked by Pringer X, the damage counter being shown as well. You could be easily forgiven if afterward [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt you didn't believed the serious trailers afterward]].
** This tradition was resurrected for ''Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice'', with a different character voicing each 'Next Episode' spoof, each of which was declared to be the 'Final Episode' of the imaginary series. And, true to the tradition, the ACTUAL Final Chapter had a completely honest trailer, right down to being declared as the Final Episode...
* The trailer for ''HalfLife 2: Episode 2'' at the end of ''Episode 1'' implies that Alyx didn't survive the train crash at the end of ''Episode 1'' and this would drive the plot of the second episode. This spectacularly fails to happen.
** To be fair [[spoiler: she is grievously wounded a few minutes into the game, and you spend a significant chunk of it trying to save her life. It wasn't a total dodge.]]
** Valve was so bothered that their trailers end up showing many scenes cut from the games that they never released a trailer for Episode 3, and don't intend to until the game is nearing release.
* Press material for Iguana Entertainment's ''SouthPark'' game said that it would feature the boys going up against the son of Scuzzlebutt. In the actual game, you fight evil LivingToys instead. Additionally, the press mentions Cartman's mom being kidnapped by the alien visitors as part of the plot. During the actual mission against the visitors, she serves no plot importance, instead merely serving as a background character trapped in suspended animation along with other townspeople.
* Trailers for ''{{Halo}} 2'' implied you would be defending Earth, when in fact you spent all of two missions on Earth, and the rest on another Halo ring. And nobody was prepared for the Arbiter's introduction. The BrokenBase had mixed opinions about this. Either Bungie was great for doing something different and having a generic defend the Earth storyline, or they felt incredibly betrayed by the "lies" Bungie gave.
** ''Halo 3'' seemed to be going this route, but you actually did spend nearly half the game fighting the Covenant invasion on Earth and [[GenreSavvy most fans knew]] the game would take place on the Ark in some fashion.
*In the trailers for the video game ''{{Portal}}'' they have a scene were the player has to outrun a crushing ceiling with spikes next to a pit full of flames. This scene does not actually appear in the game. There is a third-party add in, however, that does include it as a separate game from the regular game of Portal. It's a level add-on called ''Portal: The Flash Game Map Pack for Portal'', available from http://wecreatestuff.com
** Please see DescendingCeiling for another fan-made pack that includes this in its entirety (''with spikes'').
* ''TimeHollow'' on the DS' trailer culminates with one of the main characters falling seemingly to her death, only for the main character to dramatically grab her hand mid-air, still falling. In-game the scene is never used, and while the girl does fall, all the main character does is reach out through a portal while time is stopped and pull her through.
* Nintendo's ads for ''{{Earthbound}}'' pushed the crude humor, which actually doesn't appear in the game all that often.
* The opening trailer for ''Oneechanbara Vortex'' shows clips from the game, including a rather cool scene of Aya saving Saki from an attacker by running into him with a motorcycle. Except that in the actual game, it's not returning TokenLoli and Heel Face Turned ex-BigBad Saki, but newcomer Anna who is saved in this manner.
* Patrial example: the trailers and opening for ''TalesOfSymphonia: Dawn of the New World'' has Emil, Marta, Alice, and Decus all fighting, hanging around, and doing innocuous things like the main characters from the first game did in their opening, and generally giving you the false impression that the latter two are (or at some point would become) allies instead part of the game's TerribleTrio. Weirdly, they're also treated the same way in ''the closing animated'' even after [[spoiler:they both died fighting Emil and Marta]].
* The Tekken 5 trailer. Heihatchi Mishima is dead? [[spoiler:No he is not!]].
* According to a former 3D Realms developer, the 2001 teaser trailer for ''DukeNukemForever'' was basically this trope embodified: Every single scene in the trailer was created from the ground-up as a non-interactive cinematic sequence, just so they would have something to show to the press. It worked like a charm.
* In ''IWannaBeTheGuy'', the list of items in the game fulfills this trope. The trick? Most of that shit ''is'' in the game, just not as items.
* Parodied and lampshaded in [[{{Tsukihime}} Kagetsu Tohya]] with the Imogirisou trailer and sidestory. The side story is unlocked with a bizarre dreaming involving a fake Shiki, murders, Akiha's ex fiance and numerous other things, and when the game starts it has absolutely nothing to do with anything in the 'trailer' dream. Shiki gets irritated at how the story he's in now is even less interesting than the one he had a dream about. For clarification, the side story is something of a TakeThat to another series of games that ThisTroper doesn't believe has been released outside Japan.
* Bethesda's "Radiant AI" trailer for Oblivion... an entirely scripted series of events (which they claimed were dynamic and spontaneous) that never actually appeared ingame. False advertising, hooray!
* Trailers for the second episode of ''Tales of Monkey Island'', ''Siege of Spinner Cay'', explicitly show a scene with Elaine commenting on Guybrush's clearly infected hand. This is only half-true: she ''does'' comment on Guyrbush's hand, but [[spoiler:she's commenting on his complete and total '''lack''' of a hand, as he instead has a hook there - the hand gets chopped off in the first two minutes of play. Presumably Telltale deliberately lied to keep this twist as a shock]].
*Trailers for {{World in Conflict}} show Pine Valley, Washington DC, and some random airbase getting nuked. Looking at the aftermath of one of said nukes a nurse states "We're seeing the same situation all over the West coast." The truth is [[spoiler:that only one nuke is used throughout the entire game, in Cascade Falls, launched by the Americans, Pine Valley gets retaken (somewhat) intact, the Russians never nuke Washington DC and in fact never move past the Washington state border.]]
*[[Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2]] has a bit of this. Quite a few qoutes from the Infamy Trailer are never heard in the game(Too bad, considering how cool they are) and while Makarov is focused on the trailor, he has very little face time in the actual game("No Russian" being the most).
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Shipping was also [[ShipTease taken advantage of]] in the very first trailer for the second season finale of ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' by exploiting familiarity with the LockedInARoom trope. Later trailers served to help put the [[WhamEpisode wham]] into the outcome of the finale.
** They did it again with the trailer for the second half of Season 3. Somewhat disappointingly, fans [[{{Squee}} fell for it.]]
* Parodied in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXfIHhU_r9c this trailer]] for ''AquaTeenHungerForce Colon Movie Film for Theaters'', which gives a long list of things that '''do not''' appear in the movie. Except the flaming chicken.
** The commercials for upcoming episodes always use actual clips from the episode, but often show them out of context, [[AnachronicOrder out of order]] and with misleading narration.
* There was a Cartoon Network trailer for ''The WoodyWoodpecker Show'' which consisted entirely of classic Woody clips, and thought that CN was going to put ''more'' classic toons on, a reverse of the trend which had seen classics dwindled to just Tom and Jerry. Instead, it turned out to be a modern revival of Woody.
* All of the trailers for ''KungFuPanda'' made it out to be a slapstick, comedic parody in the same vein as most of Dreamworks's animated features. Granted, this could be excused by the fact that the title character is voiced by Jack Black--but considering his usual style of acting and choice in film roles, this would seem to be a very strong example of MisaimedMarketing twice over--most fans of Jack Black's usual work would not go to see him in an animated feature, and most parents would not want their kids to see an animated feature which starred Jack Black. In any case, the movie instead turned out to be a pretty serious, epic action film with almost mythic proportions at times.
**The comedy was all still there, not made up, but spaced out and used as comic relief to lighten the tension. Which means people coming to the film solely for Jack Black comedy were probably disappointed, and those who might have enjoyed the action never got a chance to see it because they were driven away by the trailers. This editor's roommate was almost one of those, and he himself would not have been as interested or determined to see it if he hadn't read [[AllThereInTheManual The Art of Kung Fu Panda]] at a bookstore. Fortunately, the eventual $600 million box office take, 3rd highest of the year and topping even ''{{Wall-E}}'' suggests that the film overcame this marketing botch.
* Similar to the KungFuPanda example, Dreamworks' MonstersVsAliens made it out to be far zanier than it really was, and obscured Susan's status as the main character and instead played her condition for far more humor than in the movie itself.
*The trailer for ''AllDogsGoToHeaven'' make it looks like a happy, sappy movie about a dog taking care of an orphan. If you ever saw the movie you would know its anything but that.
*Some commercials for the ''{{Happy Tree Friends}}'' [=DVDs=] make it look like a harmless happy-go-lucky kids show. Anyone who watches the show or internet shorts will tell you otherwise, the footage usually consisted of the first few minutes of the cartoons.
*A lot of people didn't want to see ''{{Coraline}}'', even ranting about how it wasn't as scary as the book, after seeing the theatrical trailer, which made it seem more kid-friendly. This resulted in several people missing out on a great film, and many parents escorting terrified and crying children out of the theaters.
** And even more egregious, the trailers for ''Coraline'', a claymation film that looks a lot like a Tim Burton movie, all went out of their way to note that it was "made by the producer of ''The Nightmare Before Christmas''!" Naturally, the point was to make everybody think that it was a Tim Burton movie. Tim Burton had nothing to do with it.
*** The trailers said "From the director of ''Nightmare Before Christmas''", but made no mention of the fact that it was Henry Selick and not Tim Burton, who everyone assumes directed ''TNBC''.
* The trailer for the fourth ''{{Futurama}}: Into the Wild Green Yonder'' features a clip of Professor Farnsworth lamenting that Planet Express is closing down, making it seem as if this is a major plot-point. However this scene mostly just exists to lampshade the fact that Fry, Bender, and Leela haven't worked for the entire movie and is directly before the company is hired for a huge job that Farnsworth just has Hermes, Zoidberg, and himself do it instead.
** There's also a part in the trailer where Zoidberg declares Fry is dead, and it's played for dramatic value. In the actual movie, this happens in the first ten minutes, and a couple seconds after Zoidberg says it, it's revealed he was only knocked down, albeit in pain.
*** Granted, the mere fact that the "death" scene is shown in the trailer is a strong hint that it's a bait-and-switch, since, if it were real, it would be far too important a plot point to be spoiled in the trailer.
* A Network Ten (Australia) advertisement for the Simpsons episode "Mommy Beerest" (where Marge takes control of Moe's bar) made it look like a Lost parody, cleverly putting scenes together and putting in an image of the Lost logo with Simpsons characters.
** This troper remembers a Fox commercial for the early episode with the mental patient who thinks he's Michael Jackson, in which Bart asks who his date for the Grammys was. In the ad, when answered, he says, "Sure, everyone knows that!" While he acts really impressed on the actual episode.
** Following on from above's Network Ten example, their promo back in the early 90s for the episode ''Brother from the Same Planet'' had Bart's line "Tom's a better father than you ever were" over Homer bawling his eyes out, implying a somewhat emotional episode, but anybody who's actually seen it will know Homer in that scene was actually crying about record clubs jacking up prices.
*** There was also a more recent episode that was hyped as having Metallica as its guest stars. They were only on screen for about thirty seconds.
* The trailers for the AllCGICartoon movie ''BattleForTerra'' shows things from the humans' side and barely shows the alien characters, which misleads the public about the fact that [[spoiler: the humans are the invaders.]]
* The previews for the hour-long ''SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "Truth or Square?" featured Spongebob saying "Remember the day Sandy and I got married?" and shows the other characters reacting with shock, making it look like the episode is about Spongebob and Sandy getting married secretly. In reality, the episode is just about the characters getting lost in the Krusty Krab and having random flashbacks about different things. Spongebob and Sandy getting married is just one of those flashbacks, it is only shown for about a minute, and [[spoiler: it turns out that Spongebob and Sandy are just getting married in a play.]]

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