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To-do list:

  • Consensus was to rename Misaimed Marketing to Misaimed Merchandising because it's supposed to be about when the marketing for a show of movie or whatever misses the point in some form or another, usually in the form of merchandising aimed to a younger target than the media it's based on or promotional tie-ins that go against the product's message and feel hypocritical as a result.

    Original post 
Misaimed Marketing is supposed to be a trope about the marketing for a show of movie or whatever missing the point in a form or another, usually in the form of merchandising aimed to a younger target than the media it's based on or promotional tie-ins that go against the product's message and feel hypocritical as a result.

Looking at the on-page examples, I noticed like a lot of complaining and snark. So I ran a wick check to see what was happening on the other pages. The results were:

  • 18 wicks featuring the correct usage of the trope, as described above
  • 21 wicks being about marketing presenting a product as something it actually isn't (which is more for Never Trust a Trailer)
  • 4 wicks were complaining
  • 2 wicks lacked context
  • 5 wicks were other kinds of misuse

My suggestion is to turn the trope into a disambiguation between Never Trust a Trailer, What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids? and What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?.

Wick check:

Misaimed Marketing is a trope about marketing and merchandising for a media covers a drastically different target than the media itself (usually mature productions getting kids-targeted toylines). The trope may attract some misuse and complaining judging by the main page itself.

Wicks: 50/50

    Marketing is either aimed at a different target than the one the media represented is aimed to, misses the point of its content or makes other unfortunate decisions (18/50) 
  • YMMV.An American Tail: Infamously, if unintentionally (one would hope), done by McDonald's. One of their special promotions tied into the film's winter release was a special offer involving Fievel... Christmas stockings and tree ornaments, despite Fievel being obviously Jewish. The Anti-Defamation League was not pleased.
  • YMMV.Baldis Basics In Education And Learning: Baldi toys exist, presumably aimed at young kids, despite the whole game being a Subverted Kids' Show.
  • YMMV.Batman Returns: This movie had a lot of tie-in merchandise aimed at children despite not being a kids' movie by a long shot. McDonald's pulled their Happy Meal toys after parental backlash.
  • YMMV.Berserk And The Band Of The Hawk: The preorder bonus included an alternate Fanservice skin for Casca, which was heavily promoted in the game's advertising. The problem? Said skin was Casca as she's shown standing under the waterfall, immediately after she's been raped and tortured to the point of insanity and has the mental maturity of a toddler. Suffice to say, not everyone felt sexualizing this scene was appropriate.
  • YMMV.Chicken Run: Despite the film being about chickens trying to avoid being turned into food, Burger King restaurants in the US and Canada promoted the film by adding airplane-shaped chicken tenders to the Big Kids Meal menu.
  • YMMV.Dead Space 2: The Your Mom Will Hate It campaign, which appears to be directed at preteens for a game made for adults.
  • YMMV.El Chavo Animado: Part of this series' marketing included a computer video game called Learn to code with El Chavo. It is a very strange choice to use El Chavo, a poor orphan boy who has probably never used a computer in his life, for an educational game about coding.
  • YMMV.Grave Of The Fireflies: While they are Setsuko’s favorite, it’s still awfully jarring to see Setsuko’s image on the packaging of certain Sakuma Fruit Drops tins, especially considering how the tin gets used at the end. They’re heartbreakingly delicious.
  • YMMV.HTF You Tube Copyright Lawsuit School: You Tube using a Web Animation known for being a Sadist Show set in Sugar Bowl and cleansing it to educate viewers definitely baffled the show's fans and non-fans alike.
  • YMMV.How The Grinch Stole Christmas: While the film is against consumerism, there were a lot of merchandising tie-ins the year of its release, including video games, a board game, toys and otherwise.
  • YMMV.Infinity Train: One HBO Max ad sandwiched the show between the likes of Sesame Street and Esme & Roy, even though this show is primarily for teens/young adults, and definitely not for preschoolers.
  • YMMV.Inside Out: There's a Hot Topic-exclusive Funko Pop figure of Bing Bong that has him as translucent. While the figure's translucency is supposed to be a reference to him being an Imaginary Friend, many people who saw the film misinterpreted it as a reference to him fades away near the end of the film.
  • YMMV.Jurassic World: Hybrid dinosaurs are among the main selling points for the film's merchandising. This is despite the film's general idea that making hybrids is a bad thing.
  • YMMV.Mighty No 9: The Masterclass trailer takes a brief swipe at anime fans, which is rather strange considering that comprises a large number of the backers and fans.
  • YMMV.Police Academy The Animated Series: To a degree. By the time the cartoon aired, the movies were PG-rated, with mostly slapstick antics and a small amount of raunchy material, and were somewhat OK for family viewing. However, no sane parent would show the target audience of this cartoon the original 1984 movie, which was VERY raunchy and borderline hard-R.
  • YMMV.Primal Rage: Despite being very violent game filled with copious amounts of blood and gore, Playmates released a toyline for it that was geared entirely toward kids. While they did Bowdlerise the backstory content written on the boxes to make it more child-friendly, the fact they did proves they knew this IP was never made with a younger audience in mind but still went through with it anyway.
  • YMMV.Robo Cop 1987: Despite its ultraviolence and very adult themes, and a brief spoof of the commercialization of violence to children with the Nukem! board game, the movie was nonetheless used to produce toys, a sunday morning cartoon, and a third installment that was openly aimed at children. The meeting of Richard Nixon and Robo at an act of the Boy Scouts of America where the latter was promoting the release of the film in home video may be the epitome of this trope.
  • YMMV.Scaredy Squirrel: The show's episodes can be found on the Treehouse Direct Youtube channel, with the Treehouse logo even preceding the episodes. While it is based on a children's book series and produced by Nelvana like Max and Ruby and Franklin which are both on the channel, unlike those shows this is aimed at an older audience than the book series.

    Marketing presents the product as something it actually isn't (21/50) 
  • YMMV.A24: Many have attributed their films' frequently low CinemaScore and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes to this. For example, A24 will frequently market their extremely dark, dramatic, or abstract horror films (such as The VVitch or Hereditary) like Paranormal Activity or other more mainstream fare. While this usually helps draw in audiences who are looking for a few thrills and jump scares on opening weekend, it tends to leave many viewers feeling like they were tricked into watching a different (and even more unpleasant) film than they were expecting, contributing to bad word-of-mouth and steeper week-to-week declines in revenue.
  • YMMV.About Time: The adverts made it look like a generic Rom Com, but it's every bit as much about familial love as romantic. The Tag Line is cleverly misleading about this: "A Funny Film About Love with a little bit of time travel".
  • YMMV.Action Comics New 52: DC hyped up the new Superman as a more alienated and edgy figure, however despite possessing a chip on his shoulder, this Superman still very much possess the compassionate nature Superman is known for.
  • YMMV.Alien Covenant: The "She Won't Go Quietly" ad features a contemporary pop hit and emphasizes Daniels as being an Action Girl... Even though the movie is a horror film and doesn't emphasize action as much as Aliens did to its predecessor. When compared to the rest of the ad campaign, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was for a different movie altogether — and that it's a Missing Trailer Scene makes the disconnect between the ad and the actual movie even more apparent.
  • YMMV.Alton Towers: Th13teen was a notable victim of it. It was heavily advertised as not just the park's next "Secret Weapon", but as the scariest rollercoaster of all time, with a range of promotional stunts that included suggesting that guests would need to sign a waiver to ride it, or that it was a new type of ride known as a "psychoaster". When the ride opened, it turned out to essentially be a family-friendly rollercoaster with a single neat gimmick. The general consensus today is that it's a good ride, but the attempts to hype it up only hurt its initial perception, and that the gimmick would have been better served if it was used on a ride that fully embraced the thrill aspects of coasters.
  • YMMV.Barbie: Commercials for toys based on the earlier animated films in the franchise often placed emphasis on Barbie finding her true love or her attending a ball, no matter how important these elements were to those movies (some of them didn't even have balls).
  • YMMV.Bridgerton: Some fans felt the marketing around season 2 didn't do nearly enough to promote Kate and Anthony as the leading couple for the season. In fact, Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley weren't given any one-on-one photoshoots or interviews; they were fully left out of major marketing staples such as Entertainment Weekly and tie-in products; and the season 2 FYC event was used to promote season 3 over a year in advance. Although the reason given for the second instance was the actors' schedules, some saw this all as either pure incompetence/oversight, or even speculated that it was deliberate (see Broken Base).
  • YMMV.Brutal Legend: Vivendi disallowed all announcements of Real-Time Strategy elements to the point that no marketing would ever use the phrase RTS ever. When they axed the game, Double Fine moved to EA, who did the same thing.
  • YMMV.Cuties: Outside of its native France, this film became infamous for its mishandled international marketing, seeming to promote the film as a Hotter and Sexier Step Up knockoff with 11-year-old girls, the exact opposite of its message.
  • YMMV.Darling Lili: The film was advertised with the slogan "Everyone loves Darling Lili. So will you and your family" - which is thought to be an attempt to recoup the costs by drawing in families.
  • YMMV.Digimon Survive: When the game was initially announced in 2018, it was described as "a survival SRPG that combines 2D & 3D with lots of genres". During the first week of the game's actual 2022 release, articles on NintendoLife and GameRant detailed how it was being review bombed by fans who assumed from that original marketing it would be a gameplay-focused Strategy RPG, were upset with the game's lengthy Visual Novel segments, and were unaware of Habu Kazumasa's later statement that it would be more like an "interactive Digimon anime".
  • YMMV.Earth Bound 1994: "This game stinks!". Basically, most of the American marketing tried to portray the game as a Grossout Show, even using smelly scratch-and-sniff cards. While EarthBound is certainly strange, it's really not that gross at all. Some fans even think that the inaccurate marketing contributed to the game's disappointing sales when it was first released in America. note  Nowadays, the old Tag Line is used as a joke among players and fans. Even Nintendo mentioned the old scratch-and-sniff cards on a Nintendo Direct broadcast.
  • YMMV.Edward Scissorhands: This was one of the films repackaged on VHS as one of Fox's "Family Features" in the mid-1990s even though it's rated PG-13 for good reasons, in particular Jim's death at Edward's blades. It's also one of the few non-franchise PG-13 films available on Disney+.
  • YMMV.Fantastic Four 2005: The film's marketing focused mostly on the action, which only appears in two scenes.
  • YMMV.Fantastic Four 2015: FX's promos, the "Group Name" one, in particular, make the movie look more comedic than it actually is.
  • YMMV.Freakazoid: The show's incredibly clever humor proved its downfall. The network promised to deliver the 2-11 demographic to advertisers. It flopped with them, but did well with the 18-34 demographic. Attempts to suggest to The WB to market it as such were completely ignored and the show was canceled as a result.
  • YMMV.Hellblade Senuas Sacrifice: The game was marketed as an action-heavy Hack and Slash, which isn't surprising given Ninja Theory's development history, when in reality it's more of a Genre Buster adventure title with relatively sparse combat that has been described as a "borderline Walking Simulator" by some reviewers (albeit not necessarily in a negative way).
  • YMMV.Jumanji: It was marketed as a nice, comedic family film starring Robin Williams, conveniently leaving out the traumatizing things that pervade the movie. Roger Ebert even criticized this, saying that more kids are now likely to see the movie not knowing that they're going to have the bejeezus scared out of them.
  • YMMV.Pac Man 2 The New Adventures: Marketing the game as an official sequel to the original arcade game that is considered one of the most influential timeless classics in gaming history when this is virtually In Name Only by comparison was a surefire way to alienate many of the potential fans of the game.
  • YMMV.Red Shoes And The Seven Dwarfs: In the western release, the film's trailers and posters were rife with insensitive jokes and references to Snow White's larger figure, with this particularly infamous tagline implying that plus-sized women cannot be beautiful. This caused many assumptions that the film was promoting fat-shaming, leading to the filmmakers (including Chloë Grace Moretz, the voice of Snow White in the English dub) to criticise the marketing for completely betraying the film's actual message.
  • YMMV.Saints Row 2022: The game's CG debut trailer focuses heavily on the new cast and the zanier side of the setting, which as Tainted by the Preview below shows is by far the most controversial part of the game. A 15-minute gameplay video was shown behind closed doors just before the public reveal and provided a much more crowd-pleasing idea of what the game will be like by focusing on the game's unique environment and range of new features, but for whatever reason it was never publicly released; a leak of the video did make it out, and the reaction to it was much more positive than that of the official CG trailer.

    Complaining (4/50) 
  • YMMV.Dinosaur: It's a Disney movie, after all. Anyone want an action figure of Aladar who says the most cheesy lines from the film and whose skeleton randomly glows in the dark?
  • YMMV.Mulan: Mulan's placement in the Disney Princess franchise already counted but it reached a new low when the DVD joined the "Royal Wedding Collection". Not royalty, and not getting married to royalty.
  • YMMV.Pingu: Whoever thought the (ironic) ''Pingu's English'' program was a good idea probably never even watched the series proper to begin with.
  • YMMV.We Bare Bears: The bears are also on your feminine hygiene packaging. At least they're only available in China. That "at least" is a bit complainy

    ZCE (2/50) 
  • YMMV.Beyond Good And Evil: The decision to package copies of the game with string cheese, of all products. Shows how badly the game sold. Now "string cheese" is a minor inside joke in the fandom. ???
  • YMMV.Happily Ever After: Take a gander at the Portuguese VHS cover. Looks an awful lot like something out of an horror movie, doesn't it? Thankfully, they had the sense to put the dwarfelles at the bottom to lighten it up. Link is broken, also it's too snarky and would probably fit more under Covers Always Lie

    Other (5/50) 
  • YMMV.Bubble Boy: Disney got into some trouble for this. For whatever reason, the trailer for this film was attached to films like The Princess Diaries, and the trailer that was attached to the film (Bubble Boy) itself? Max Keeble's Big Move. Let that sink in for a bit. Not about the movie itself, also ZCE because it implies we all know what kind of movie Max Keeble is
  • YMMV.Dark Souls III: The Estus Flask edition official walkthrough released by Prima comes with a Estus Flask replica and an Artorias Greatsword bookmark, except two things, the Flask is just a solid green piece of plastic that can't even hold liquid. And the bookmark barely has the durability of a Dark Souls II weapon. one of the reviewers demonstrated an accurate depiction of equipment break mechanics throughout the series. This is not even Misaimed Marketing, it's just complaining about low-quality merch
  • YMMV.Donkey Hodie: Mild example: For the 2021 Halloween season, the PBS Kids app showcased their characters wearing costumes for Halloween. Among these, the icon for Donkey Hodie showcased her in a lobster costume. It turns out to be this trope because of why she was wearing it in-universe - in the episode "Spooky Shadow Swamp", Donkey wears it to face her fear of shellfish while in a museum, and Panda later implies that Donkey is still afraid of shellfish. She also wears the same costume in a Halloween message posted on the Instagram account for the show. Not exactly this trope at all
  • YMMV.Mega Man NT Warrior 2002: Even back then a lot of people thought that the show would have been a lot better off on Toonami than Kids' WB!, granted back then Kids WB was pretty much alive and well but still... what
  • YMMV.The Shnookums And Meat Funny Cartoon Show: More a case of misconceived marketing, the Shnookums and Meat canned pasta had this remarkable disclaimer on the label: "Meat is a character developed by Buena Vista Television. THERE IS NO MEAT IN THIS PRODUCT." This leads to some interesting Fridge Logic: Shouldn't they have been more concerned with assuring the customer that the product doesn't contain any "Shnookums"? The example itself states that this is not exactly this trope, great

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jan 14th 2024 at 9:26:22 AM

PhantomDusclops92 Slayer of YMMV complaining magnets from Do you even care? Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Charming Titania with a donkey face
Slayer of YMMV complaining magnets
#1: Jun 23rd 2023 at 4:05:00 AM

To-do list:

  • Consensus was to rename Misaimed Marketing to Misaimed Merchandising because it's supposed to be about when the marketing for a show of movie or whatever misses the point in some form or another, usually in the form of merchandising aimed to a younger target than the media it's based on or promotional tie-ins that go against the product's message and feel hypocritical as a result.

    Original post 
Misaimed Marketing is supposed to be a trope about the marketing for a show of movie or whatever missing the point in a form or another, usually in the form of merchandising aimed to a younger target than the media it's based on or promotional tie-ins that go against the product's message and feel hypocritical as a result.

Looking at the on-page examples, I noticed like a lot of complaining and snark. So I ran a wick check to see what was happening on the other pages. The results were:

  • 18 wicks featuring the correct usage of the trope, as described above
  • 21 wicks being about marketing presenting a product as something it actually isn't (which is more for Never Trust a Trailer)
  • 4 wicks were complaining
  • 2 wicks lacked context
  • 5 wicks were other kinds of misuse

My suggestion is to turn the trope into a disambiguation between Never Trust a Trailer, What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids? and What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?.

Wick check:

Misaimed Marketing is a trope about marketing and merchandising for a media covers a drastically different target than the media itself (usually mature productions getting kids-targeted toylines). The trope may attract some misuse and complaining judging by the main page itself.

Wicks: 50/50

    Marketing is either aimed at a different target than the one the media represented is aimed to, misses the point of its content or makes other unfortunate decisions (18/50) 
  • YMMV.An American Tail: Infamously, if unintentionally (one would hope), done by McDonald's. One of their special promotions tied into the film's winter release was a special offer involving Fievel... Christmas stockings and tree ornaments, despite Fievel being obviously Jewish. The Anti-Defamation League was not pleased.
  • YMMV.Baldis Basics In Education And Learning: Baldi toys exist, presumably aimed at young kids, despite the whole game being a Subverted Kids' Show.
  • YMMV.Batman Returns: This movie had a lot of tie-in merchandise aimed at children despite not being a kids' movie by a long shot. McDonald's pulled their Happy Meal toys after parental backlash.
  • YMMV.Berserk And The Band Of The Hawk: The preorder bonus included an alternate Fanservice skin for Casca, which was heavily promoted in the game's advertising. The problem? Said skin was Casca as she's shown standing under the waterfall, immediately after she's been raped and tortured to the point of insanity and has the mental maturity of a toddler. Suffice to say, not everyone felt sexualizing this scene was appropriate.
  • YMMV.Chicken Run: Despite the film being about chickens trying to avoid being turned into food, Burger King restaurants in the US and Canada promoted the film by adding airplane-shaped chicken tenders to the Big Kids Meal menu.
  • YMMV.Dead Space 2: The Your Mom Will Hate It campaign, which appears to be directed at preteens for a game made for adults.
  • YMMV.El Chavo Animado: Part of this series' marketing included a computer video game called Learn to code with El Chavo. It is a very strange choice to use El Chavo, a poor orphan boy who has probably never used a computer in his life, for an educational game about coding.
  • YMMV.Grave Of The Fireflies: While they are Setsuko’s favorite, it’s still awfully jarring to see Setsuko’s image on the packaging of certain Sakuma Fruit Drops tins, especially considering how the tin gets used at the end. They’re heartbreakingly delicious.
  • YMMV.HTF You Tube Copyright Lawsuit School: You Tube using a Web Animation known for being a Sadist Show set in Sugar Bowl and cleansing it to educate viewers definitely baffled the show's fans and non-fans alike.
  • YMMV.How The Grinch Stole Christmas: While the film is against consumerism, there were a lot of merchandising tie-ins the year of its release, including video games, a board game, toys and otherwise.
  • YMMV.Infinity Train: One HBO Max ad sandwiched the show between the likes of Sesame Street and Esme & Roy, even though this show is primarily for teens/young adults, and definitely not for preschoolers.
  • YMMV.Inside Out: There's a Hot Topic-exclusive Funko Pop figure of Bing Bong that has him as translucent. While the figure's translucency is supposed to be a reference to him being an Imaginary Friend, many people who saw the film misinterpreted it as a reference to him fades away near the end of the film.
  • YMMV.Jurassic World: Hybrid dinosaurs are among the main selling points for the film's merchandising. This is despite the film's general idea that making hybrids is a bad thing.
  • YMMV.Mighty No 9: The Masterclass trailer takes a brief swipe at anime fans, which is rather strange considering that comprises a large number of the backers and fans.
  • YMMV.Police Academy The Animated Series: To a degree. By the time the cartoon aired, the movies were PG-rated, with mostly slapstick antics and a small amount of raunchy material, and were somewhat OK for family viewing. However, no sane parent would show the target audience of this cartoon the original 1984 movie, which was VERY raunchy and borderline hard-R.
  • YMMV.Primal Rage: Despite being very violent game filled with copious amounts of blood and gore, Playmates released a toyline for it that was geared entirely toward kids. While they did Bowdlerise the backstory content written on the boxes to make it more child-friendly, the fact they did proves they knew this IP was never made with a younger audience in mind but still went through with it anyway.
  • YMMV.Robo Cop 1987: Despite its ultraviolence and very adult themes, and a brief spoof of the commercialization of violence to children with the Nukem! board game, the movie was nonetheless used to produce toys, a sunday morning cartoon, and a third installment that was openly aimed at children. The meeting of Richard Nixon and Robo at an act of the Boy Scouts of America where the latter was promoting the release of the film in home video may be the epitome of this trope.
  • YMMV.Scaredy Squirrel: The show's episodes can be found on the Treehouse Direct Youtube channel, with the Treehouse logo even preceding the episodes. While it is based on a children's book series and produced by Nelvana like Max and Ruby and Franklin which are both on the channel, unlike those shows this is aimed at an older audience than the book series.

    Marketing presents the product as something it actually isn't (21/50) 
  • YMMV.A24: Many have attributed their films' frequently low CinemaScore and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes to this. For example, A24 will frequently market their extremely dark, dramatic, or abstract horror films (such as The VVitch or Hereditary) like Paranormal Activity or other more mainstream fare. While this usually helps draw in audiences who are looking for a few thrills and jump scares on opening weekend, it tends to leave many viewers feeling like they were tricked into watching a different (and even more unpleasant) film than they were expecting, contributing to bad word-of-mouth and steeper week-to-week declines in revenue.
  • YMMV.About Time: The adverts made it look like a generic Rom Com, but it's every bit as much about familial love as romantic. The Tag Line is cleverly misleading about this: "A Funny Film About Love with a little bit of time travel".
  • YMMV.Action Comics New 52: DC hyped up the new Superman as a more alienated and edgy figure, however despite possessing a chip on his shoulder, this Superman still very much possess the compassionate nature Superman is known for.
  • YMMV.Alien Covenant: The "She Won't Go Quietly" ad features a contemporary pop hit and emphasizes Daniels as being an Action Girl... Even though the movie is a horror film and doesn't emphasize action as much as Aliens did to its predecessor. When compared to the rest of the ad campaign, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was for a different movie altogether — and that it's a Missing Trailer Scene makes the disconnect between the ad and the actual movie even more apparent.
  • YMMV.Alton Towers: Th13teen was a notable victim of it. It was heavily advertised as not just the park's next "Secret Weapon", but as the scariest rollercoaster of all time, with a range of promotional stunts that included suggesting that guests would need to sign a waiver to ride it, or that it was a new type of ride known as a "psychoaster". When the ride opened, it turned out to essentially be a family-friendly rollercoaster with a single neat gimmick. The general consensus today is that it's a good ride, but the attempts to hype it up only hurt its initial perception, and that the gimmick would have been better served if it was used on a ride that fully embraced the thrill aspects of coasters.
  • YMMV.Barbie: Commercials for toys based on the earlier animated films in the franchise often placed emphasis on Barbie finding her true love or her attending a ball, no matter how important these elements were to those movies (some of them didn't even have balls).
  • YMMV.Bridgerton: Some fans felt the marketing around season 2 didn't do nearly enough to promote Kate and Anthony as the leading couple for the season. In fact, Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley weren't given any one-on-one photoshoots or interviews; they were fully left out of major marketing staples such as Entertainment Weekly and tie-in products; and the season 2 FYC event was used to promote season 3 over a year in advance. Although the reason given for the second instance was the actors' schedules, some saw this all as either pure incompetence/oversight, or even speculated that it was deliberate (see Broken Base).
  • YMMV.Brutal Legend: Vivendi disallowed all announcements of Real-Time Strategy elements to the point that no marketing would ever use the phrase RTS ever. When they axed the game, Double Fine moved to EA, who did the same thing.
  • YMMV.Cuties: Outside of its native France, this film became infamous for its mishandled international marketing, seeming to promote the film as a Hotter and Sexier Step Up knockoff with 11-year-old girls, the exact opposite of its message.
  • YMMV.Darling Lili: The film was advertised with the slogan "Everyone loves Darling Lili. So will you and your family" - which is thought to be an attempt to recoup the costs by drawing in families.
  • YMMV.Digimon Survive: When the game was initially announced in 2018, it was described as "a survival SRPG that combines 2D & 3D with lots of genres". During the first week of the game's actual 2022 release, articles on NintendoLife and GameRant detailed how it was being review bombed by fans who assumed from that original marketing it would be a gameplay-focused Strategy RPG, were upset with the game's lengthy Visual Novel segments, and were unaware of Habu Kazumasa's later statement that it would be more like an "interactive Digimon anime".
  • YMMV.Earth Bound 1994: "This game stinks!". Basically, most of the American marketing tried to portray the game as a Grossout Show, even using smelly scratch-and-sniff cards. While EarthBound is certainly strange, it's really not that gross at all. Some fans even think that the inaccurate marketing contributed to the game's disappointing sales when it was first released in America. note  Nowadays, the old Tag Line is used as a joke among players and fans. Even Nintendo mentioned the old scratch-and-sniff cards on a Nintendo Direct broadcast.
  • YMMV.Edward Scissorhands: This was one of the films repackaged on VHS as one of Fox's "Family Features" in the mid-1990s even though it's rated PG-13 for good reasons, in particular Jim's death at Edward's blades. It's also one of the few non-franchise PG-13 films available on Disney+.
  • YMMV.Fantastic Four 2005: The film's marketing focused mostly on the action, which only appears in two scenes.
  • YMMV.Fantastic Four 2015: FX's promos, the "Group Name" one, in particular, make the movie look more comedic than it actually is.
  • YMMV.Freakazoid: The show's incredibly clever humor proved its downfall. The network promised to deliver the 2-11 demographic to advertisers. It flopped with them, but did well with the 18-34 demographic. Attempts to suggest to The WB to market it as such were completely ignored and the show was canceled as a result.
  • YMMV.Hellblade Senuas Sacrifice: The game was marketed as an action-heavy Hack and Slash, which isn't surprising given Ninja Theory's development history, when in reality it's more of a Genre Buster adventure title with relatively sparse combat that has been described as a "borderline Walking Simulator" by some reviewers (albeit not necessarily in a negative way).
  • YMMV.Jumanji: It was marketed as a nice, comedic family film starring Robin Williams, conveniently leaving out the traumatizing things that pervade the movie. Roger Ebert even criticized this, saying that more kids are now likely to see the movie not knowing that they're going to have the bejeezus scared out of them.
  • YMMV.Pac Man 2 The New Adventures: Marketing the game as an official sequel to the original arcade game that is considered one of the most influential timeless classics in gaming history when this is virtually In Name Only by comparison was a surefire way to alienate many of the potential fans of the game.
  • YMMV.Red Shoes And The Seven Dwarfs: In the western release, the film's trailers and posters were rife with insensitive jokes and references to Snow White's larger figure, with this particularly infamous tagline implying that plus-sized women cannot be beautiful. This caused many assumptions that the film was promoting fat-shaming, leading to the filmmakers (including Chloë Grace Moretz, the voice of Snow White in the English dub) to criticise the marketing for completely betraying the film's actual message.
  • YMMV.Saints Row 2022: The game's CG debut trailer focuses heavily on the new cast and the zanier side of the setting, which as Tainted by the Preview below shows is by far the most controversial part of the game. A 15-minute gameplay video was shown behind closed doors just before the public reveal and provided a much more crowd-pleasing idea of what the game will be like by focusing on the game's unique environment and range of new features, but for whatever reason it was never publicly released; a leak of the video did make it out, and the reaction to it was much more positive than that of the official CG trailer.

    Complaining (4/50) 
  • YMMV.Dinosaur: It's a Disney movie, after all. Anyone want an action figure of Aladar who says the most cheesy lines from the film and whose skeleton randomly glows in the dark?
  • YMMV.Mulan: Mulan's placement in the Disney Princess franchise already counted but it reached a new low when the DVD joined the "Royal Wedding Collection". Not royalty, and not getting married to royalty.
  • YMMV.Pingu: Whoever thought the (ironic) ''Pingu's English'' program was a good idea probably never even watched the series proper to begin with.
  • YMMV.We Bare Bears: The bears are also on your feminine hygiene packaging. At least they're only available in China. That "at least" is a bit complainy

    ZCE (2/50) 
  • YMMV.Beyond Good And Evil: The decision to package copies of the game with string cheese, of all products. Shows how badly the game sold. Now "string cheese" is a minor inside joke in the fandom. ???
  • YMMV.Happily Ever After: Take a gander at the Portuguese VHS cover. Looks an awful lot like something out of an horror movie, doesn't it? Thankfully, they had the sense to put the dwarfelles at the bottom to lighten it up. Link is broken, also it's too snarky and would probably fit more under Covers Always Lie

    Other (5/50) 
  • YMMV.Bubble Boy: Disney got into some trouble for this. For whatever reason, the trailer for this film was attached to films like The Princess Diaries, and the trailer that was attached to the film (Bubble Boy) itself? Max Keeble's Big Move. Let that sink in for a bit. Not about the movie itself, also ZCE because it implies we all know what kind of movie Max Keeble is
  • YMMV.Dark Souls III: The Estus Flask edition official walkthrough released by Prima comes with a Estus Flask replica and an Artorias Greatsword bookmark, except two things, the Flask is just a solid green piece of plastic that can't even hold liquid. And the bookmark barely has the durability of a Dark Souls II weapon. one of the reviewers demonstrated an accurate depiction of equipment break mechanics throughout the series. This is not even Misaimed Marketing, it's just complaining about low-quality merch
  • YMMV.Donkey Hodie: Mild example: For the 2021 Halloween season, the PBS Kids app showcased their characters wearing costumes for Halloween. Among these, the icon for Donkey Hodie showcased her in a lobster costume. It turns out to be this trope because of why she was wearing it in-universe - in the episode "Spooky Shadow Swamp", Donkey wears it to face her fear of shellfish while in a museum, and Panda later implies that Donkey is still afraid of shellfish. She also wears the same costume in a Halloween message posted on the Instagram account for the show. Not exactly this trope at all
  • YMMV.Mega Man NT Warrior 2002: Even back then a lot of people thought that the show would have been a lot better off on Toonami than Kids' WB!, granted back then Kids WB was pretty much alive and well but still... what
  • YMMV.The Shnookums And Meat Funny Cartoon Show: More a case of misconceived marketing, the Shnookums and Meat canned pasta had this remarkable disclaimer on the label: "Meat is a character developed by Buena Vista Television. THERE IS NO MEAT IN THIS PRODUCT." This leads to some interesting Fridge Logic: Shouldn't they have been more concerned with assuring the customer that the product doesn't contain any "Shnookums"? The example itself states that this is not exactly this trope, great

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jan 14th 2024 at 9:26:22 AM

Number one fan of characters that appear only once and ultimately were a recurring character either in disguise or trying a new image.
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#2: Jun 23rd 2023 at 4:05:57 AM

Opened.

I think disambiguating sounds fine due to the redundancy issues. Regarding the complaining folder, since TRS threads for YMMV items have had to deal with the fact that some complainy examples can still be proper examples, I think those four examples aren't proper examples, if only due to the lack of context.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jun 23rd 2023 at 6:10:15 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Amonimus the Retromancer from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
the Retromancer
#3: Jun 23rd 2023 at 4:18:20 AM

Thinking about the uses, I think disambiguating is fine between the three.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
StalkerGamer Hi! :3 Since: Dec, 2021 Relationship Status: Love is an open door
prettycoolguy Since: Nov, 2010
#5: Jun 23rd 2023 at 5:30:17 AM

The only reason why I’d be in favor of disambiguating rather than trying to salvage what’s non-complaining (perhaps with a rename) is if the scope of Never Trust a Trailer allows all those 21 examples to be moved. I thought it covered only trailers with what’s claimed as footage, rather than a backpack or shirt or something similar. If yes, we should probably include that in the trope description somewhere. If no, would Covers Always Lie be acceptable?

And yeah the “valid” examples, when looking at them, can mostly be moved to part of the WDYM entries, with perhaps a few others moving to the Unfortunate Implications page.

Edited by prettycoolguy on Jun 23rd 2023 at 8:32:50 AM

themayorofsimpleton Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him from Elsewhere (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Abstaining
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BlackMage43 Since: Jun, 2014 Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
Berrenta How sweet it is from Texas Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
How sweet it is
RandomTroper123 She / Her from I'll let you guess... (Not-So-Newbie) Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
AlmightyKingPrawn I can chase the wind, I can race the rain from Down at Fraggle Rock *clap clap* Since: Oct, 2019 Relationship Status: I love you for psychological reasons
I can chase the wind, I can race the rain
#11: Jun 23rd 2023 at 11:55:58 AM

I'm confused, so the What Do You Mean namespaces can include merchandise? That's odd to me. I think the trope is valid but I guess I'm in the minority. At least, if we did keep it (and I don't quite see what is wrong with the main page), we should cut the SpongeBob subpage as it is a MESS, just a bunch of complaining about SpongeBob things for younger children.

(Disclaimer: I added a lot of entries in the past so I may be biased. If my contributions to the wiki suck then I'm genuinely sorry that I just make things worse.)

Edit: it seems a lot of the absolute worst parts of the SpongeBob subpage have been cut since I was last there, but there's still a lot of bad entries, like how a reference to the 2012 Olympics somehow makes no sense because the franchise isn't British. Also, as I didn't clarify, I consider this trope valid ONLY for questionable merchandise. Trailers under the namespace are definitely misuse of Never Trust a Trailer.

Edited by AlmightyKingPrawn on Jun 23rd 2023 at 3:00:39 PM

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Piterpicher Veteran Editor IV from Poland, for real (Series 2) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
Veteran Editor IV
#12: Jun 23rd 2023 at 12:11:27 PM

IDK, I still think Anti Message Marketing sounds like a potential trope... If the work has Jewish themes but Christmas merchandise (An American Tail), chicken food but chickens trying to survive (Chicken Run), or hybrids bad but they're still cool (Jurassic World), then I'd say it's noteworthy and unlikely to be covered by those other tropes (don't think it's really trying to showcase the work as being something that it isn't, just an error by consumerism).

Edited by Piterpicher on Jun 23rd 2023 at 9:12:05 PM

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AlmightyKingPrawn I can chase the wind, I can race the rain from Down at Fraggle Rock *clap clap* Since: Oct, 2019 Relationship Status: I love you for psychological reasons
I can chase the wind, I can race the rain
#13: Jun 23rd 2023 at 12:17:56 PM

[tup] Anti-Message Marketing rename with trailer entries moved to Never Trust a Trailer

She/her. Profile pic is by Richard Michael Gomez @StarmansArt. Please watch Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. https://youtu.be/Vm92JNgPbqk
VampireBuddha Calendar enthusiast from Ireland (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
PhantomDusclops92 Slayer of YMMV complaining magnets from Do you even care? Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Charming Titania with a donkey face
Slayer of YMMV complaining magnets
#15: Jun 23rd 2023 at 1:53:53 PM

Yes, I'm OK with this. Examples about merchandise going against the message of the media get a new trope, Misaimed Marketing becomes the disambiguation between it and the tropes already mentioned on top.

Number one fan of characters that appear only once and ultimately were a recurring character either in disguise or trying a new image.
themayorofsimpleton Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him from Elsewhere (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Abstaining
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
#16: Jun 23rd 2023 at 5:58:14 PM

I could see Anti Message Marketing being a potentially valid concept, but I'm worried it could attract nitpicking.

TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
ninjamitsuki2 Mero Mero Merorin from The Altress of Fortuna Since: Feb, 2015 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
Mero Mero Merorin
#17: Jun 23rd 2023 at 7:02:50 PM

I also really don't see anything wrong with the page (aside from the confusion with Never Trust a Trailer most of the wicks are correct usage to boot) and prefer just a cleanup but if action had to be done I'd be in favor of Anti-Message Marketing.

I also think that miscellaneous strange/ironic merch ("How Toyetic Can You Get?") could still get a YMMV or JFF page, it's fun to document them and it would be a shame to just throw it all away. edit: I meant YMMV not trivia, oops.

Edited by ninjamitsuki2 on Jun 23rd 2023 at 11:00:30 AM

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Amonimus the Retromancer from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
the Retromancer
#18: Jun 23rd 2023 at 7:16:09 PM

Maybe Clueless Marketing (similar to Clueless Aesop) about ads and merchandise that unintentionally contradict the actual work.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Nen_desharu Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire from Greater Smash Bros. Universe or Toronto Since: Aug, 2020 Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire
#19: Jun 23rd 2023 at 7:28:27 PM

Clueless Marketing is much better than Anti Message Marketing to me.

Misaimed Marketing can become a disambig page as well.

Edited by Nen_desharu on Jun 23rd 2023 at 10:29:03 AM

Kirby is awesome.
KaabiiFan13 Since: Apr, 2022
#20: Jun 23rd 2023 at 7:37:18 PM

I will miss Misaimed Marketing, but creating a Clueless Marketing reaction to disambigue it to sounds like a nice comprimise.

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#21: Jun 23rd 2023 at 7:46:00 PM

I also think that miscellaneous strange/ironic merch ("How Toyetic Can You Get?") could still get a trivia or JFF page, it's fun to document them and it would be a shame to just throw it all away.

That would still be YMMV and not Trivia, because whether it's strange/ironic is open to interpretation. It's not JFF either way because JFF isn't a dumping ground.

The Anti Message Marketing idea combined with disambiguating the old name sounds fine. Anti Message Marketing would still be YMMV because it would require a value judgment.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jun 23rd 2023 at 11:13:46 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013
#22: Jun 23rd 2023 at 7:54:54 PM

[tup] disambig.

[tdown] Clueless Marketing, especially since Clueless Aesop is queue'd up for TRS due to misuse and attracting complaining

neutral on Anti Message Marketing.

Edited by amathieu13 on Jun 23rd 2023 at 11:13:54 AM

Nen_desharu Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire from Greater Smash Bros. Universe or Toronto Since: Aug, 2020 Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire
#23: Jun 23rd 2023 at 7:57:30 PM

How about Hypocritical Marketing, Contradictory Marketing, or Broken Aesop Marketing?

Edited by Nen_desharu on Jun 23rd 2023 at 10:58:14 AM

Kirby is awesome.
StarSword Captain of USS Bajor from somewhere in deep space Since: Sep, 2011
Captain of USS Bajor
#24: Jun 23rd 2023 at 8:13:14 PM

Or just Misaimed Merchandising, since this is mainly about promotional merch.

Edited by StarSword on Jun 23rd 2023 at 11:13:44 AM

amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013
#25: Jun 23rd 2023 at 8:17:50 PM

[up][up]My opposition isn't to the name, it's to the concept. Tropes about works that "unintentionally contradict themself" are just not great b/c examples

  1. have to establish intentionality, something that keeps popping up as an issue across different tropes + threads
  2. have to point out a contradiction, which if Clueless Aesop is anything to go off of, tropers aren't great at note 
  3. lead to excessive complaining

Edited by amathieu13 on Jun 23rd 2023 at 11:21:31 AM

Trope Repair Shop: Misaimed Marketing
30th Jun '23 1:21:09 AM

Crown Description:

Consensus was to rename Misaimed Marketing because it's supposed to be about when the marketing for a show of movie or whatever misses the point in some form or another, usually in the form of merchandising aimed to a younger target than the media it's based on or promotional tie-ins that go against the product's message and feel hypocritical as a result. What should its new name be?

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