"Don't judge a book by its cover" is as much a British English idiom as it is American. Apparently George Eliot used it in her book "The Mill on the Floss" back in 1860.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_j...k_by_its_cover
It was generally thought to be good advice. That changed to some extent when modern day authors, especially now on Kindle, realised that their books would indeed be judged by their covers - not so much that people would judge the content of the book by its cover, if they ever read the book. But it was the cover which provides the first impression and decides whether the customers will buy the book in the first place. So these days, people frequently do judge books by their covers, so I wonder if the original meaning of the idiom will no longer be applicable to modern life. I find it interesting to see how much things have changed. You could also apply "judging by its cover" to all kinds of packaging decisions.
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