I&#x27;ve never understood the logic behind prescription drug ads.  The first rule of sales is to pitch the decision maker.  You can&#x27;t buy prescription drugs without a doctor&#x27;s authorization, so basically the ads are asking people to go beg their doctors for medicine they may, or may not, need. The doctor, in turn, may give in to the patient&#x27;s emotional pleas, since they are, in effect, in a customer service business. This would be an ethical violation. This rule would remove the ethical temptation of doctors<p>Further, it will be nice not to hear about an erection lasting over 4 hours, and not being too old for sex, in front of my 11 year old daughter while watching the news after dinner.<p>From a policy perspective, since the patients are not usually paying for the meds (you and I do), it makes sense to keep demand and prices low, as the doctors assert.<p>As for the free market, we do not have a free market in medicine. It is highly regulated through insurance and government regulation. So, I don&#x27;t see a problem there.