Man intends to sue Warner Bros. for misleading Suicide Squad trailer

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The trailer said the movie was in LONDON.

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FTFY :wink:

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Advertising standards are voluntary self regulation by the industry. They issue recommendations and the liar solemnly promises not to do it again.

Or at least that was the case in Ireland and I assume the systems are quite similar. I used to read the complaint about Ryanair lying in ads every month in Deadline and every month they promised not to do it again and hey, next month same same.

ASA complaints are generally way more effective than any voluntary system here in the US. But I grant you that they may have no effect on a sufficiently shameless company, Ryanair hopefully being the nadir of such.

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They set the bar low. I can think of some lauded startups that appear to be talented limbo dancers though…

I have to respect a man whose lawsuit sounds like one of my longer form comments here.

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Worst Joker ever. He makes Caesar Romero seem Oscar worthy.

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Sure trailers are deceiving and rarely give you any idea of what a movie will be like but do they often show footage that never appears in the movie? I suppose if the trailer was released long before production was finished it’s to be expected but I honestly can’t recall any times where I’ve wondered “hey what happened to that scene I saw in the trailer?”.

Maybe the time period between when I happen to see the trailer and when I finally watch the movie is just too long for me to remember any details about the trailer.

You missed the best bit out.

The top reply in that thread is from Ken “popehat” White, who chimes in with “Why so litigious?”

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It is really not infrequent for there to be scenes in trailers which aren’t in finished movies. I have noticed it quite a few times, although I cannot think of any examples off the top of my head. Missing scenes are one thing, but complaining about non-story details like what color somebody’s eyes are post-production isn’t going to get them far.

Consider the “damages” here - even if it cost them 100 pounds to get out to the cinema to see the movie - if they are complaining about getting cheated out of a few seconds of the runtime, we could be generous and pay them 1 pound. There is no way that a trailer of a minute or so is expected to give an accurate measure of what will be seen. Some teasers don’t even show ANY of the movie! (including the first for Star Wars, IIRC).

When I was in my teens though, I did wish that I could sue the companies who made slick airbrushed art for VHS tapes of zero-budget sci-fi, horror, and fantasy movies. The awesome robot/monster/warrior on the cover never once appeared in their house/gravelpit/soundstage! That was a lot more deceptive than evaluating the tone and editing of a film via its trailer.

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As an Apple fanboy, who reads those sorts of sites, I was under the impression that the UK Advertisng Standards Authority had teeth

Stop hating on our Messiah, you humorless windroids!

Yes, they often do this. The trailers are made before final movie edits, often six or eight months before. Happened in Guardians of the Galaxy, for example.

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A trailer doesn’t mean “what you are seeing now is in the film”, ya great wally. The trailer for the southpark movie had a huge omnious shape being created in cgi to eventually emerge as the paper cutout of Cartman doing the German dance while signing the song about it. I was mildly disappointed that in the film he didn’t do the German dance or the song about it but knew right away that this was one of those times where you can’t sue someone for some stupid bullshit reason. The trailer for clerks was the same as scenes from the film with the exception that they were stormtroopers. Whoop! Time to litigate!

Also who goes from London to Scotland specifically to to watch a film? There’s a shit ton of cinemas in London.

Dear sir, if I was in the cinema as staff or client at the time of your insane request, I would too have laughed at you and do so now, quite inwardly. LOLOLOL

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He went the other way round, from Scotland to London. I’m in two minds about this. A trailer being an advertisement, how far can you stray from the content? I realise there’s room for editing manoeuvres, but where do you draw the line?

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Forget the trailers. I want to put together some class action suits to get refunds for every bad movie I’ve been fooled into wasting my money on.

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What about a trailer that has nothing in common with the movie it is promoting?

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Ahh, I thought it said he went the other way. Derf!

Sure it’s not right to be deliberately misleading but when you go to the cinema you are there to see the theatrical cut. Films often get heavy editorial butchering after the promos have been let loose, the adverts for Clue and Death Becomes Her had scenes that weren’t present later.

I know that game adverts have to have those “not actual gameplay footage” to avoid getting flak for being misleading, but a little message at the botton of a film trailer saying “scene not in theatrical cut” would be as grating as those “may contain scenes of mild peril” bullshit messages that some felt they needed warning of.

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What is his complaint? He already saw the scenes in the trailer- for free. I’m more inclined for a refund when the trailer shows too much of the movie.

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That’s true enough, but the question remains, where do you draw the line? If there’re no legal boundaries, the studios could effectively put all sorts of sweeteners into the trailer that don’t appear in a movie, until at the extreme someone, somewhere, sometime makes a trailer where none of the scenes appear, just because they can.

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