Agreed. Believe was… odd.
The diorama was neato. The old soldiers remembering past battles were kinda interesting. But the entire ad campaign was built on false premises and temporal quicksand. It's actually my least favorite bit of Halo marketing ever. I knew the whole ad was misguided, at best, the moment I saw the Chief being held by the Brutes. The oddest thing is Believe was sorta tossed around as the theme for Halo 3 for a bit when it is pretty much the only ad to be so out of step with its game. Halo 3's other ads, Starry Night and Landfall were much much better. As were ODST's live action and prerendered ads and Reach's Deliver Hope. Even those kind of odd Making a Spartan ads had more relevance than Believe did.