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Comment by Turbo_hedgehog | Hacker News Reader

What if you allow basically the same ad but disallow mention of any brand names - only the generic name or condition to be treated?

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This is what we have in Australia. Vague ads talking about various diseases and advising you to talk to your doctor about your health problems.

"Nasal spray technology"

Honestly though, it's a good system. I can't actually tell you what brand that ad is for, but I do know that I can talk to my doctor about it if I have issues with PE!

Those ones are a huge scam incidentally. The drugs are old and relatively ineffective, but the advertising is to get people into clinics owned by the company which then funnel them to heart clinics for check ups before prescribing.

I believe in Canada you can talk about the condition, or you can talk about the drug, but you can't talk about both at the same time.

That's how it works in Oz. The drug companies tend to use their product packaging colors heavily in the ad to link the brand.

Then we have a tragedy of the commons, where Pfizer and Lilly (the makers of Viagra and Cialis respectively) will wait for the other to create generic ED ads that they will both benefit from.

The solution seems to be public awareness ad campaigns to remove the stigma surrounding talking to your GP about embarrassing conditions, while still outlawing the advertising of specific drugs.

Or they would, you know, work together for exactly this reason, like how dairy farmers supported Got Milk? together

"Got Milk?" was originally commissioned by the California Milk Processor Board, which is administered by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (i.e. the government) [1]. Also note that milk lacks much in the way of strong brand identity or distinguishing features, unlike Viagra and Cialis which are very different medications.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Got_Milk%3F

I'm not sure that's the tragedy of the commons.

Also, I imagine that the cost of making and running the commercial would be pretty trivial compared to the profits to be made from the sale of the product.

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