I Am Not Shazam / Advertising

• In an ad for Dragon Warrior on the NES, the hero is called the Dragon Warrior, while in the game, the hero is a case of No Name Given and Hello, [Insert Name Here].
• An Orange cinema ad based on Gulliver's Travels parodies this. When Jack Black notices all the Product Placement going on, he complains about it ruining the iconic scene in which Gulliver Travels wakes up tied to the ground.
• The Nintendo Cereal System ad makes the common mistake of referring to The Legend of Zelda character Link as "Zelda":
  Nintendo! Super Mario jumps!
  Nintendo! In a fruity flavored crunch!
  Nintendo! Here's Zelda too!
  Nintendo! It's berry good news!
• When the Smith Brothers trademarked their logo for their cough drops, the product label split the word "Trademark" in two, putting the words "Trade" and "Mark" under portraits of the two brothers. As a result, it has always been assumed that the Smith Brothers' names were Trade and Mark. Their names were actually William (Trade) and Andrew (Mark).
• In the 90s, TNT would air promo ads for Godzilla movie marathons as part of their Monstervision TV specials. One promo ad would list the names of various foes Godzilla fought. The problem? One of the monsters is listed as "Baragon" in the promo but is actually Gabara.
• The "Target Dog" in the See "Spot Save" commercials is not actually named "Spot". Reportedly, the dog's name is "Bullseye". The "spot" is actually a reference to Target Store's logo....which resembles a bullseye.
• A radio spot for the (American-owned) chain of Japanese cuisine/teppanyaki restaurants, Benihana, features a customer coming in and asking to speak to Mr. Hana. The maître d' explains to him that there is no such person; "Benihana" means "safflower" in the Japanese language, he says. The customer retorts, "Oh, you can't kid me. I'll bet you're Benny Hana."
• Toys R' Us Malaysia seems to be rather prone to doing this in their ads. The last two times they did special sales to tie in with Star Wars film launches, they published a line saying "Come dressed as your favorite Star Wars to win a special prize" in their ads. One wonders how they expect one to dress up as The Empire Strikes Back or The Phantom Menace.
• In 2012, Wendy's began running a series of commercials with a friendly, attractive redhead extolling Wendy's cuisine. Many people referred to her as "Wendy", the character who appears in the restaurant's logo ^note based on company founder Dave Thomas' daughter. The character's actual name was "Red". Adding to the confusion, the real red-headed Wendy Thomas has been in commercials starting in 2010.
• Played for Laughs in an Allstate Insurance ad, where Dennis Haysbert walks into a restaurant and everybody there refers to him as "Safe drivers save forty percent".
  • Parodied on Saturday Night Live where ad executives, over controversies surrounding black mascot characters, fire Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and All-State Guy. An angry All-State Guy (played by Dave Chappelle) says he has a name: "It's Guy from Waiting to Exhale!"