Many companies used advertisement as their method to market their products. There is nothing wrong with marketing products through advertisement, but using misleading informations or even fraud informations is a totally different story.
We all have had the experience of feeling disappointed at a product which we brought purely because of its advertisement. The disappointment comes from the expectations we hold for the product which was from the advertisement. In reality, most of the product differ from the one they advertised, this is because of the misleading information that used in the advertisement. Thus, in my point of view, using misleading informations is not only wrong, but also unethical. For example, in June 2012, Apple was fined $2.25m for misleading advertisement. When Apple introduced its latest iPad in Australia, the advertisement had implied that the iPad WiFi + 4G could directly connect to the local LTE network provided by Telstra in Australia. But apparently, the new iPad was unable to do that. Thus, Apple has been fined for not compliant with the Australian consumer law.
By using misleading informations in the advertisement can indeed increase the sale of the product. But it will damage the relationship between the customer and the company by lying to them. In the worst case, the company might lost customer loyalty which is so hard to build. In Apple’s case, the misleading advertisement helped to increase the sales volume in Australia, but at the same time, it also lost its customer loyalty in Australia. In addition, Apple has to offer a serie of customer benefit to Australians in order to maintain its market share in Australia. Therefore, in my opinion, misleading advertisement is not a good idea to practice, and it is unethical, because the advertisement lies to the customer.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/jun/21/apple-fined-ipad-4g-australia