What were we thinking?

OK, I admit, I was wooed by a radio commercial I heard for Applebee's. Apparently they paired up with some chef, Tyler Florence, and came up with some limited-time menu items. I heard them describing this steak dinner: "Enjoy a grilled 7 oz. House Sirloin brushed with olive oil, fresh herbs and Italian seasonings paired with plump sautéed shrimp topped with succulent crab stuffing and lemon garlic butter. Served with almond rice pilaf, fresh seasonal vegetables and toasted side bread". It sounded GREAT. So off we went to try it.
The picture on the menu also looked great. The steak looks juicy and succulent and is covered with herbs. StfRon ordered a steak from the special menu as well. We both asked for medium rare.
When they arrived, I was at first taken aback by the lack of any sign of herbs on my steak, plus no smell of herbs and actually, no scent at all from the food. StfRon noticed that his steak was gray instead of brown. In looking, I realized that mine was as well. I tried to cut into it, and it was rubbery. When the waitress came by to check, StfRon said the steaks looked gray and were kind of rubbery. She agreed that they did not look right and offered to have them remade.
While we were waiting, a manager visited our table and told us that all the steaks pretty much look the same, so chances our that our new ones would look that way, too. She said despite the looks, they taste fine.
Our new steaks arrived and sure enough they didn't look much different, still no herbs on mine and still looking a little gray. We tried them, and the flavor was OK.

As we had been waiting for our meal to be delivered a second time, we had been talking about when the last time was that we had visited a chain restaurant. Neither one of us could remember because it had been so long. And really, what IS the goal of marketing like this where places advertise, verbally and/or with beautiful, glossy photos that the actual meal never lives up to? Is the goal to get people in once and get that sale, or is the goal to keep them coming back? If I feel like I've been misled, I'm not likely to rush back.
Surely it could also be the franchise's interpretation of how to prepare the meal, but big chains should make sure the employees know how to prepare something that is going to be plastered all over the place.
The last time this happened, it was Lonestar wooing me with a "garlic lover's" steak and shrimp. You say garlic lover's and you are calling my name. This meal had no garlic at all visible on the steak, unlike the photo covered with minced garlic, and actually my shrimp arrived fried and not garliced. The waitress said you need to specify garlic shrimp, despite the picture showing the shrimp grilled with garlic in the menu.

The employees at Applebee's were great and did right by us. And we left a great tip for our waitress, who was very apologetic. But I doubt we'll be back, and if we are, we'll steer (no pun intended) clear of the steaks.