False advertising is advertising that is meant to mislead the consumer into believing something about the product that is not true. A popular example of this is Red Bull. The advertising used to include the words 'Red Bull gives you wings' until a court case was filed against the company. Red Bull settled the lawsuit and eventually removed the statement.
It is against the law for any company or advertiser to be misleading and specific laws apply to each type of industry advertisement. Depending on the effect of the belief of the false advertising it could be considered a felony. An example of this is when a person says they have a cure for a terminal illness and someone stops taking traditional medical advice to follow the false advertising claims. If the person died as a result their family would have a claim against the false advertiser.