DB on direct to consumer advertising

He writes:

DTC drug advertising contaminates the doctor patient interaction.  DTC drug advertising encourages patients to ask for more medications – and almost only expensive medications.

We should be able to ignore these demands, but we are not always able to resist.

That's especially true under today's patient satisfaction incentives.

DTC drug advertising perverts medication decision making, and this is a huge unethical problem.

Indeed. DTC advertising, more harmful in my opinion than direct to physician promotion, has exploded in recent years. It's an unintended consequence of the public beating drug companies have taken for promoting to doctors. The drug companies are going to spend a certain amount of money on marketing no matter what. The more it's taken away from doctors the more it will be diverted to consumers.