[3xblah]

Direct to consumer TV ads for pharmaceuticals were illegal in 1981. This did not change until 1997. As I remember it, in the few years after 1997 there were still relatively few drug ads on TV. It was nothing like today. It seems like the number of ads has dramatically increased in more recent times I would guess because many large pharmaceutical companies lack the pipelines they had in the 1990's and are under more pressure to increase sales on existing drugs.

[drdec]

> It seems like the number of ads has dramatically increased in more recent times

Don't neglect to account that it may be that as you grow older, you are more likely to encounter these types of ads because the drug companies target older consumers as they are more likely to need the product.

[3xblah]

I only meant TV ads. As for trying to guess about me, I watch almost no TV in recent times, though I did watch it back in the 80's and 90's. I am basing this opinion on only small periodic encounters with recent TV, random samples. I do not see internet advertising because I use a text-only browser except when doing commercial transactions. In any event, I use local DNS, no third-party "upstream" DNS provider. I never see ads. Away from home, I generally do not access the internet from mobile phones. It is a reasonable guess, though. No doubt Americans are being targeted by advertising like never before.