[kongolongo]

Why are prescription drug ads bad? Its not like consumers can prescribe or buy it for themselves.

If there is a problem with overconsumption or misuse of prescription drugs isn't the blame on the medical professionals that prescribe them? Ads to the general public seems far down on the list of culprits here.

[watwut]

The strategy of "making it increasingly hard to resist the pressure, increasing the pressure and then blaming the group of people for failing to resist the predictable pressure" fails.

Eventually, doctors that resist the pressure loose in the market, because they end up less liked and more criticized. And that is about it.

[kongolongo]

>Eventually, doctors that resist the pressure loose in the market, because they end up less liked and more criticized. And that is about it.

Sounds like the incentives for doctors are misaligned. They shouldnt be subject to market demand for improper prescribing, for example that should be offset by fines or license revocation for misprescribing. Consumers cant be expected to know if a treatment is appropriate, so they consult doctors and if doctors are swayed by financial incentives to prescribe thats on the doctors.