Any person who knowingly with intent to sell or in any wise dispose of merchandise, securities, service or anything offered by such person, directly or indirectly, to the public for sale or distribution or with intent to increase the consumption thereof, to induce the public in any manner to enter into any obligation relating thereto or to acquire title thereto or an interest therein makes, publishes, disseminates, circulates or places before the public or causes, directly or indirectly, to be made, published, disseminated, circulated or placed before the public, in a newspaper or other publication or in the form of a book, notice, handbill, poster, bill, circular, pamphlet, letter or in any other way, an advertisement of any sort regarding merchandise, securities, service or anything so offered to the public which contains any assertion, representation or statement of fact which is intentionally untrue shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars or by imprisonment at hard labor for not less than thirty days nor more than six months, in the discretion of the court.
S.C. Code § 39-1-20