History Main / SexyPackaging

* ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'': The cover of the first book depicts [[ShirtlessScene a shirtless Jace Herondale]], who rarely has shirtless scenes in the series (and never does in the first book). It's probably meant to depict the Shadowhunter tattoos on his body, but the cover no doubt has turned off people who think the series is just another ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]''-esque ParanormalRomance.

* ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments:'' Most of the first book's cover is taken up by [[ShirtlessScene a shirtless male torso]]; presumably it is supposed to represent the male lead, Jace, who never gets shirtless in that book. Then again, a good portion of the text is dedicated to describing how attractive he is, so you can't say that it's ''totally'' misleading.

* A series of "historical" UsefulNotes/D20System game supplements were published by Avalanche Press. Most of the books featured a scantily clad large-breasted woman on the cover, even for settings set in the most frigid climates.

* The artwork used to advertise Dinamic's 8-bit computer game ''Game Over'' (a Luis Royo piece originally used for ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal'') caused a bit of a scandal when it was imported to the UK, where the leading UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum magazines each handled it differently: while ''Your Sinclair'' magazine [[RefugeInAudacity had the audacity to print it as a poster]], partially exposed nipples and all, ''Sinclair User'' decided to CensorBox the offending area with a large Dinamic logo, and ''Crash'' had staff illustrator Oliver Frey subtly redraw the bustier's cups to be slightly less revealing while still showing a NavelDeepNeckline.

* The in-universe Nikki Heat novels in ''Series/{{Castle}}'' have the eponymous detective on the covers with a gun and little else. Beckett, the "muse", is unsurprisingly not amused. Despite clashing with the reality, however, it's not unfounded in the text of the {{defictionaliz|ation}}ed ''Literature/NikkiHeat'' books, as one of the major differences between Beckett and Nikki Heat is that Heat, in Castle's words, is "kinda slutty."

* The original ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' poster had Creator/JanetLeigh in a bra as the central image.

** The Blu-ray release features a nude Panty straddling a large gun on the cover. Naturally, the set has a strategically-placed sticker over Panty's torso so it can be sold at mainstream retailers like Target or Walmart; and the sticker is notably absent at online retailers or specialty stores like Suncoast Motion Picture Company. Justified given it's an AnimatedShockComedy, but it still qualifies.
** Pushing the envelope of this trope to the limit, then, we have the ''[[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Forever Bitch Edition]]'', which cover shows... [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131102075204/pswgb/images/f/f6/Panty_%26_Stocking_with_Garterbelt_-_Forever_Bitch_Edition_cover.jpg Yeah.]][[note]][[ShmuckBait If you want to know but you're too scared to click]], it's Panty and Stocking nude [[EroticEating giving a blowjob to a breadstick]].[[/note]]

* Most of the covers for ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' are pretty tame, although there ''is'' one cover that features Rue in a birdcage wearing a corset and a tutu that covers basically nothing. It's based on a real ballet (as all of the covers are), and it's highly symbolic, so it's not ''too'' out of place... but then ADV decided to use that picture as the cover for the boxset. Considering Rue isn't even the title character, the fans were confused and embarrassed by the move. Luckily in later editions, the eponymous MagicalGirl is shown on the cover in a less provocative pose.

* ''VideoGame/FeelTheMagic'' is hit doubly here. If either the title was changed, or the bikini-wearing girl on the cover was replaced, it wouldn't do much more than raise eyebrows. Unless the title change was to the one actually used in Europe, "Project Rub". Together, they unfairly make the game look like a sex simulator. To be totally fair, though, the game itself has heavy erotic themes (and the bikini-wearing girl is the female lead), so it's not that out of place. For that matter, it's toned down from the Japanese version if anything, where the bikini-wearing girl is nude, and the title is the significantly more provocative "I Would Die For You".

* These are typically tagged as "bringing sexy back" and "wink wink nudge nudge" on [[http://lousybookcovers.com/ LousyBookCovers.com]], which also makes fun of a great many ''other'' kinds of execrable book covers such as those containing blatantly stolen images (tag: "image search gone wrong"), highly visible image compression artifacts (tag: "pixelation"), and horribly stretched or squished pictures (tag: "aspect ratio"), among other hideous and often offensive design failings. Basically, the site ''runs'' on this trope.

* The St. Pauli Girl Beer logo certainly helps push the sales.

* ''Manga/ACentaursLife'' is a SliceOfLife manga that occasionally features nudity, but unlike some of its monster girl-themed competition like ''Manga/MonsterMusume'', it's usually in an everyday context and is less focused on {{Fanservice}}. Nevertheless, while the first few volumes had covers that depicted the everyday scenes the manga focuses on, there have been an increasing number of covers that are obvious attempts at {{Fanservice}} that are at odds with the content or depictions in the actual manga. Perhaps the most notable is Volume 8, which features an OffModel version of the main character in a swimsuit, featuring her larger-than-usual breasts dripping with water prominently on one side of the book, and a close up on her dripping behind on the other. In general, her breast size has also been increasing with each cover, far ahead of her in-story depiction, and included the visible shape of nipples through her clothes.

* Most of the covers for ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' are pretty tame, although there ''is'' one cover that features Rue in a bird cage wearing a corset and a tutu that covers basically nothing. It's based on a real ballet (as all of the covers are), and it's highly symbolic, so it's not ''too'' out of place... but then ADV decided to use that picture as the cover for the boxset. Considering Rue isn't even the title character, the fans were confused and embarrassed by the move. Luckily in later editions the eponymous MagicalGirl is shown on the cover in a less provocative pose.

* While the standard cover art of ''ComicBook/BladeDevil'' is pretty tame the ''Website/{{Indiegogo}}'' variant covers quickly gained infamy for featuring the main heroine in an explict NaughtyTentacles hentai scene that appears ''nowhere'' in the actual story. (While the graphic novel does have some sexy content its mostly a straight action/fantasy series about a swordswoman fighting monsters.)

* The Creator/JuanJoseRyp cover to issue 4 of ''ComicBook/FrankMillersRoboCop'' features [[https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/1/11307/363621-20346-128122-2-frank-miller-s-roboc.jpg a bloodied Lewis drawn in such a way that she resembled a pole dancer]]. His covers for some of the other issues also features scantily-clad women.

* ''ComicBook/HackSlash'' has a troubling Omnibus image, [[http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51E0sJy0ivL.jpg giving a panty shot of Cassie Hack with special attention being drawn to the groin area.]] While the comic has lots of fetish-wear, it is surprisingly tasteful in its fanservice.
* Most of the covers to ''ComicBook/{{Marville}}'' feature cheesecake shots of a random redhead, with the covers only slightly related to the actual content of the comic, such as "Hey, she has a dog! One of the characters owns a dog!" or "Hey, she's holding a Wolverine claw! Wolverine is in this issue!" The series was conceived as part of a bet with another writer to see who could make the better selling comic, and this strategy of blatantly misleading SexyPackaging was obviously used as low-effort reader bait when it was clear ''Marville was losing'', '''badly'''.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderManBlackCatTheEvilThatMenDo'': All of the covers place a great deal of emphasis on Black Cat's breasts, ass or [[BoobsAndButtPose both at once]].

* Standard for Dynamite; ''many'' issues of ''ComicBook/WarlordOfMars'' have covers featuring [[MsFanservice Dejah]] when her role is minimal or non-existent. It happens mostly on the original main series however.

--> "Mike, we're so excited to see these new D.H. Lawrence book covers you've designed for us!"
--> "I've chosen images that represent Lawrence's key themes: class, nature and capitalism."
--> ''(beat)''
--> "Just kidding! They're all pictures of sexy ladies!"
--> "Hooray!"

* ''Film/WhiteChristmas'': The 60th anniversary video release does this to the leading ladies. We see just the heads of Kay and Crosby, but the full bodies of Rosemary and Vera. Rosemary is drawn to wear a dress far more slinky and {{form fitting| wardrobe}} than anything she wore in the movie, and Vera is wearing [[HappyHolidaysDress her holiday dress]] from the end, but without the petticoat, to show her dancer legs (based on similar publicity shots for the movie).

* If you know nothing about ''Film/AmericanBeauty'', you could be forgiven for thinking it was a porn flick, given its title, tagline ("Look closer") and prominent image of a woman's midriff and a red rose. [[FridgeBrilliance This was probably invoked deliberately... look closer - don't judge a book by its cover!]]

* Jame, heroine of the Literature/ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath, is a skinny flat-chested girl who is often mistaken for a boy — so ''of course'' the most recent covers give her not only large breasts, but her shirt partway open to show it off. Therefore it also crosses over with CoversAlwaysLie.

* The cover for the initial American release of ''Literature/SpiceAndWolf''. It's kind of [[AudienceAlienatingPremise hard to sell a series focused on medieval economics]], even if one of the lead characters is a [[LittleBitBeastly cute wolf girl]]. The publisher attempted to rectify this by first releasing Volume 1 with a cover which shows a live-action and possibly naked girl with a wolf tail who looks nothing like said wolf girl, Holo. It makes it look like some sort of trashy erotica novel or {{ecchi}} MagicalGirlfriend series, when it's really a historical fantasy. Outcry from fans led to it being issued with the original cover as a dust jacket.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': The Winchester brothers discover their hyper-masculine monster hunting lives are being chronicled in a series of pulpy novels. The covers show them shirtless, with Sam being portrayed by a long-haired Fabio.

* The Ravenloft supplement Van Richten's Guide to Lycanthropes features cover art depicting what is possibly supposed to be a painful transformation into a terrible beast under the light of the full moon, but more closely resembles a woman in a nightgown mid orgasm.
* A series of "historical" UsefulNotes/D20System game supplements were published by Avalanche Press. Most of the books featured a scantily clad large breasted woman on the cover, even for settings set in the most frigid climates.
* The ESCI {{Wargaming}} figure set "Barbarian Warriors", intended to reproduce Germanic tribal enemies of the Roman Empire, was marketed using box-art showing a very lightly clad blonde woman fighter, who looked as if she was on the verge of a WardrobeMalfunction. The woman warrior took centre-place among the warband on the box cover, and the art can be seen '''[[https://www.scalemates.com/kits/esci-ertl-225-barbarian-warriors--1292906 here]]'''. Out of forty-six 1:72 figures in the set, two were female and bore a vague resemblance to the cover-girl.

** The BDSM-tinged cover for the supplement ''[[http://www.amazon.com/Ghouls-Fatal-Addiction-Vampire-Masquerade/dp/1565042301 Ghouls: Fatal Addiction]]'', while not out of line with the content, is considered a bit much by many gamers. Ghouls inspire a ''lot'' of BDSM-related content (in the corebook, the picture accompanying the text about them is a out-and-out slave auction); this is just what happens when it comes full-flower.

* The package art of the "Burst" iterarion of ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'' shows a ninja scroll inserted into a female main-character's cleavage in a rather suggestive manner. Actually justified, as the franchise does revolve around busty ninja girls and contains a lot of {{Fanservice}}.

** ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena'' is notorious for its cover featuring a warrior woman in a leather bikini standing in a colosseum, largely because the game contains ''neither'' [[LadyNotAppearingInThisGame sexy women]] nor gladiatorial combat. Forget about the engaging WideOpenSandbox: on this cover, there's a barbarian girl in skanky {{Stripperiffic}} [[ChainmailBikini Breast Plates]], the likes of which appears nowhere in the rather {{Fanservice}}less game. ''Arena'' was originally intended to be ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: a fantasy gladiatorial RPG. It was only midway through the project's development that it began to evolve into the open-world of Tamriel, based off of the developer's home-brew ''[[Franchise/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]]'' setting. Given that the cover, along with the title of the game, was designed early on for marketing purposes, it's actually rather appropriate. The French cover of ''Arena'' depicts a MrFanservice-looking dude, along with a wizard companion nowhere to be found in the game, preparing to slay some goblins.

* ''Every single installment'' of ''VideoGame/{{Spellforce}}'' series has a [[{{Stripperiffic}} scantily clad]] woman in the cover art. At least she's often a plot relevant NPC.
* ''VideoGame/FeelTheMagic'' is hit doubly here. If either the title was changed, or the bikini-wearing girl on the cover was replaced, it wouldn't do much more than raise eyebrows. Unless the title change was to the one actually used in Europe, "Project Rub". Together, they unfairly make the game look like a sex simulator. To be totally fair, though, the game itself has heavy erotic themes (and the bikini-wearing girl is the female lead), so it's not that out of place. For that matter, it's toned down from the Japanese version if anything, where the bikini-wearing girl is nude, and the title is the significantly-more-provocative "I Would Die For You".

* Quite ironically inverted with ''Webcomic/ElleAndAllTheOthers''. The cover of each chapter shows an action packed scene with an occasional ShoutOut to popular video games. The comic itself is little more than PornWithPlot.