Most advertising claims that get an advertiser sued are not lies. They are true statements that a reasonable consumer reads as promising something broader, or claims that were perfectly accurate but could not be proved on the day they ran. This article walks through the sequence that actually decides advertising cases: what the ad says on its net impression, whether that message is material, and whether the advertiser held adequate support before dissemination. It explains why puffery is a narrower defense than most marketers believe, why the front of a package usually beats the back, what competent and reliable scientific evidence means in practice, and why an establishment claim converts a marketing adjective into an evidentiary promise. It then maps the four forums that police advertising — the FTC, competitor suits under the Lanham Act after Lexmark, the National Advertising Division, and state UDAP class actions — and explains why the same campaign can survive in one and fail in another. It closes with the single document that determines outcomes more than any other: the claim-support file assembled before the campaign launched.