I'm not all that interested in Portal 2, but the ads did pique my interest in the indie games.....I checked them out but didn't see anything that appealed to me there either.
While their mini ad campaign is surely a success, it isn't necessarily "wrong", and is certainly not illegal, but imo it is underhanded, and perhaps intentionally misleading, although that would be extremely difficult to prove.
I did get some good deals this week off of Steam though; Borderlands GoTY for $7.50 and Civ 5 for $29.99. Having fun! =D
I stopped pre-ordering games years ago; I got burned too many times. Every time I'm tempted by the latest (hard to resist with some of the marketing campaigns out there) I remember how I felt after getting Frontier:First Encounter, or MOO3 (and dozens more.....) So I wait a number of months for reviews, opinions, and price drops. I don't buy nearly as many games, but I have a problem with a coaster shortage now too