Because they mislead in a vague, subjective way as opposed to matters of fact. If an ad claimed that Tom Cruise was in a movie he wasn't, or that an Asylum movie was produced by Universal, that would be false advertising.
But to make a movie look more exciting or romantic or funnier than perhaps it really is? That's harder to pin down. It's often just a matter of playing up one aspect of the film at the expense of others you want to avoid highlighting. It's slanted advertising, not false advertising. After all, there's usually more than one way to pitch any given story--as a thriller, a romance, a comedy, or whatever. The trick is to find the angle that will attract the largest audience, or at least the most receptive audience.
On other hand, ads that go out of their way to hide what the movie is really about are never a good idea. That's a desperation move that will just piss off the people you trick into the theater--and maybe even keep the film from finding the right book.
I'm thinking of trailers like the ones that tried to hide the fact that SWEENEY TODD or THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA were musicals. Or that a given movie is a western or subtitled or has some other strike against it, commercially.
There was a particularly egregious case a few years ago where a movie about a man-eating alligator was marketed as a serial killer movie. Nowhere in the ads was any hint that the "serial killer" was a reptile!
To my mind, that's going too far . . . .
Last edited:
