&gt; I&#x27;ve never understood the logic behind prescription drug ads. The first rule of sales is to pitch the decision maker.<p>&quot;Surveys conducted by FDA and private organizations consistently show that DTC advertisements have an impact on whether consumers request and receive a specific brand-name prescription from their physician. [...] In several of these surveys, consumers were asked whether they had seen an advertisement for a prescription drug and whether seeing the advertisement resulted in discussing the medication with their doctor and receiving the prescription. Most consumers (65 to 85 percent) remembered seeing a DTC advertisement. A subset of consumers who saw an advertisement discussed the medication with their doctor. The percentage of patients asking their physicians about a prescription for a specific drug was consistent across studies, about 30 to 35 percent of those who remembered seeing a DTC advertisement. One study estimated that the 32 percent of consumers in a 2001 survey who had discussed a DTC advertisement with their doctor translated into approximately 61.1 million consumers asking about specific medications. In the consumer surveys we examined, the percentage of consumers who, in response to a DTC advertisement, requested and received a prescription from their physician for a drug they were not currently taking was generally about 5 percent (ranging from 2 percent to 10 percent). By our estimate, this means that about 8.5 million consumers received a prescription after viewing a DTC advertisement and asking their physician for the drug in 2000.&quot;<p>source: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gao.gov&#x2F;new.items&#x2F;d03177.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gao.gov&#x2F;new.items&#x2F;d03177.pdf</a><p>The data doesn&#x27;t care whether or not you see the logic behind it.