Banned!

Ever see those advertisements that ran for Call of Duty 2 (and its console counterpart, Big Red One)? The ones that showed a dramatic, intense battle that was completely CGI rendered? Those ads are now banned in the UK on the grounds of being misleading to consumers.

This is an interesting issue. The COD 2 ads are certainly not the first ones to use pre-rendered scenes to sell a game, but they are two of the only game ads I can remember that show absolutely nothing from the game itself. Despite how much I loathed the misleading, all-CG ads for Final Fantasy 7 back in the day, at least the clips they featured were actually found in the game (even if they weren't indicative of the actual gameplay). Furthermore, even if an ad is heavy in CG, most of them at least show some brief clip of the game, and if they don't there are usually signs that what you are watching isn't actual gameplay (lack of HUD, perfect coreography, movie like camera angles).

With the Call of Duty ads however, all of the action is from a first person perspective, and they also feature the soldier reloading and aiming down the sights exactly as it happens in the game.
A lot of cranky gamers on the internet believe that anyone who is stupid enough to fall for the ads deserves their fate, but I disagree. There is no reason to make this kind of ad, with no gamepaly footage or even in game cutscene footage, except with the intent to mislead the public. Considering the content of the ads, I can see that happening to many ill advised gamers. Hopefully more advertisers will take note and show us actual footage from their games. If it is good as you claim, then the game should speak for itself.