diff --git a/examples/playbooks/ansible_pull.yml b/examples/playbooks/ansible_pull.yml
index 2f8d0ab4bd1e26..dd25b963e4cd6c 100644
--- a/examples/playbooks/ansible_pull.yml
+++ b/examples/playbooks/ansible_pull.yml
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
       action: yum pkg=ansible state=installed
 
     - name: Create local directory to work from
-      action: file path=$workdir state=directory owner=root group=root mode=0751
+      action: file path={{workdir}} state=directory owner=root group=root mode=0751
 
     - name: Copy ansible inventory file to client
       action: copy src=/etc/ansible/hosts dest=/etc/ansible/hosts
diff --git a/examples/playbooks/cloudformation.yaml b/examples/playbooks/cloudformation.yaml
index 242def3a445868..76ab56a95919fe 100644
--- a/examples/playbooks/cloudformation.yaml
+++ b/examples/playbooks/cloudformation.yaml
@@ -42,4 +42,4 @@
         ClusterSize: 3
     register: stack
   - name: show stack outputs
-    debug: msg="My stack outputs are ${stack.stack_outputs}"
\ No newline at end of file
+    debug: msg="My stack outputs are {{stack.stack_outputs}}"
diff --git a/examples/playbooks/complex_args.yml b/examples/playbooks/complex_args.yml
index 7da02f872e0a18..03742d0b13c791 100644
--- a/examples/playbooks/complex_args.yml
+++ b/examples/playbooks/complex_args.yml
@@ -42,11 +42,6 @@
       action: ping
       args: { data: $complex }
 
-    - name: or if you prefer... this is equivalent
-      action: ping
-      args: 
-          data: $complex
-
     - name: here is an example of how it works with defaults, notice the key=value format wins
       action: service name=httpd state=running
       args: $defaults