Override front page to not display promoted article
You can simply remove nodes attached to the front page in the preprocess.

/**
 * Implements template_preprocess_page()
 */
function THEME_preprocess_page(&amp;$vars) {
  // Remove 'Promoted to front page' nodes
  if ($vars['is_front']) {
    unset($vars['page']['content']['system_main']['nodes']);
  }
}