False advertising in the context of Pennyroyal (disambiguation)

"Snake oil" is a term used to describe deceptive marketing, health care fraud, or a scam. Similarly, snake oil salesman is a common label used to describe someone who sells, promotes, or is a general proponent of some valueless or fraudulent cure, remedy, or solution. The term comes from the snake oil that was sold as a cure-all elixir for many kinds of physiological problems. Many 18th-century European and 19th-century United States entrepreneurs advertised and sold mineral oil (often mixed with various active and inactive household herbs, spices, drugs, and compounds, but containing no snake-derived substances whatsoever) as "snake oil liniment", making claims about its efficacy as a panacea. Patent medicines that claimed to be panaceas were extremely common from the 18th century until the 20th century, particularly among vendors masking addictive drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine, alcohol, and opium-based concoctions or elixirs, to be sold at medicine shows as medication or products promoting health.

In United States constitutional law, false statements of fact are assertions, which are ostensibly facts, that are false. Such statements are not always protected by the First Amendment. Often, this is due to laws against defamation, that is making statements that harm the reputation of another. In those cases, freedom of speech comes into conflict with the right to privacy. Because it is almost impossible for someone to be absolutely sure that what they say (in public) is true, a party who makes a false claim isn't always liable. Whether such speech is protected depends on the situation. The standards of such protection have evolved over time from a body of Supreme Court rulings.

One of the landmark cases that established such standards was New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964). In that case, the court ruled that statements about public officials must be given more protection in order to avoid squelching public debate. Similar protections were later expanded to statements about public figures (not just officials), and matters of "public concern" (including those involving private parties). Other examples of false statements of fact that do not receive First Amendment protection include false advertising, as in Lexmark International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc. (2014) and POM Wonderful LLC v. Coca-Cola Co. (2014), and commercial speech that includes misleading statements as in Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission (1980).

The packaging and labeling of food is subject to regulation in most regions/jurisdictions, to prevent false advertising and to promote food safety, and increasingly to provide greater information to consumers relating to quality or lifestyle concerns.

The regulation of food labels has evolved alongside the industrialization of food production and the growth of global mass food markets. In many countries, early food laws focused on preventing adulteration and fraud, often by mandating clear product names and ingredient listings. Over time, governments developed more detailed regulatory frameworks to manage food quality and public health through standardized labeling. Scholars have noted that as food systems scaled up and grew more impersonal, regulators across regions—from Europe and North America to East Asia—began using labels to simulate the trust once derived from local, interpersonal food markets. Labels became instruments of “informational governance,” conveying safety, nutritional value, and even moral or environmental claims. This trend reflects a global shift toward transparency in food commerce, often relying on scientific authority and consumer rights to shape regulatory standards.

Consumer organizations are advocacy groups that seek to protect people from corporate abuse like unsafe products, predatory lending, false advertising, astroturfing and pollution.

Consumer Organizations may operate via protests, litigation, campaigning, or lobbying. They may engage in single-issue advocacy (e.g., the British Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), which campaigned against keg beer and for cask ale) or they may set themselves up as more general consumer watchdogs, such as the Consumers' Association in the UK.