Does a lie require intent to deceive?

No, that is a lie because the phrase sleep with does not mean to slumber in the same bed. It means to have carnal knowledge of another person. This is called an idiom I believe. Anyway if you said “My wife kicked me out after she found out I slept with a prostitute” no one would think you were lying because she did not apply her foot to your backside in a vigorous fashion because they would know the meaning of “kicked out” was a separate thing from the words that make up the phrase.

Don’t expect a reply from the zombie OP. :wink: GomiBoy’s last SDMB post was in 2008.

One is called lying, the other is called marketing.

Its not a lie, its a broken promise, and no less likely to have you sleeping on the couch.

That, too, is deception. The answer to the question in your OP is an unqualified “yes”. The person must present something he knows to be untrue, otherwise he is merely mistaken.

There is another factor to consider in what makes a lie immoral, and that is the moral right of the person being lied to hear the truth. What constitutes a moral right will be highly disputed, but this is the reason that you don’t tell the Nazis that you’re hiding Jews in the attic.

Also, the drug company statement is borderline since ‘advertising statements’ was mentioned. Some people (like me) would then assume the statements are not to be believed, and wouldn’t be deceieved. So you could be telling lies to some people, and not to others. But it does sound like an intent to deceive, so it would probably get chalked up in the lie column.

Additionally, the truth can be used to deceive, lies aren’t the only way.

I think William Blake is relevant here.

A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.

George Costanza from Seinfeld says: “It’s not a lie if you believe it.”