If you grew up in the early 2000s, you probably saw a trailer for Kangaroo Jack. The trailer gives the impression that the movie is a screwball road trip comedy about two friends and their wacky, talking Kangaroo sidekick. Except it’s not that. It’s an extremely unfunny movie about two idiots escaping the mob. There’s a random kangaroo in it for like 5 minutes and he only talks during a hallucination scene that lasts less than a minute. Turns out, the producers knew that they had a stinker on their hands so they cut the movie to be PG and focus the marketing on the one positive aspect that test audiences responded to, the talking kangaroo, tricking a bunch of families into buying tickets.
What other movies had similar, deceitfully malicious marketing campaigns?
OK, call me naive, but I had no idea that Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was a famous musical. The trailer for the film, starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton. So I was very surprised when they all started singing and dancing in the film. This was never mentioned or shown in the film’s trailer! I just double-checked on Wiki and people in the UK logged official complaints with the Advertising Standards Authority and Trading Standards agency.
The only other example that comes to mind is the trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man. Can’t remember if it’s the first or second. The shot in the trailer features what looks like the start of an epic fight between Spider-Man and Rhino. Unfortunately, what you see in the trailer is the very last shot in the film. It’s a tease for a fight that you never get to see.