5 ms·

I have a rather specific condition that I’ve seen YouTube advertisements for the drugs for, despite not even searching for the details of it except through an a

I have a rather specific condition that I’ve seen YouTube advertisements for the drugs for, despite not even searching for the details of it except through an anonymizer. I’ve always wondered what the cost per click for an advertisement for a $100,000/yr drugs is.

globuous 7y ago
That’s so messed up. What do you think of advertisements for drugs in general? Have they been helpful finding treatment for your condition ? They are illegal where i’m from i believe (i’ve never seen one myself except in the us). Btw, this reminds of this absolutely hilarious story i think i first heard of here on HN: https://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-pranking-my-roommate-with-targeted-facebook-ads/ https://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-pranking...
- merpnderp 7y ago
  I’m betting these advertisements are for healthcare providers.
- RL_Quine 7y ago
  There’s basically one treatment, and one only that any specialist would recommend at this point, so it’s effectively moot other than the question of it being covered by whatever healthcare or insurance you can muster up. The alternative and older drugs tend to have some rather horrific side effects (detaching your retinas, making your skin detach in some cases) but are very cheap, nobody would choose them if they had the better option. I’m sort of confused in general what advertising for these sort of drugs actually achieves. It’s not like the patient really has a deciding ability (other than live or die if they can’t afford it), so all it does is act as a constant reminder of how financially screwed you are.
- thfuran 7y ago
  There's basically some segment of the population who will demand $SOME_DRUG_THEY_SAW_ADS_FOR and will change doctors repeatedly until they can get a prescription for it, even if there are better alternatives that were recommended by the previous doctors. Eliminating direct advertisement won't completely avoid that since there will always be blogs full of crazy nonsense or whatever, but I don't think there's any reason that consumers should be getting targeted for ads for things they can't even legally buy.
  - noir_lord 7y ago
    It's illegal to do that in the UK and therefore we have no (major) issues like you describe. One of those regulations that is a net good to society. Interesting video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic_FpRG7Z_k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic_FpRG7Z_k
jiveturkey 7y ago
> I’ve always wondered what the cost per click for an advertisement for a $100,000/yr drugs is. I doubt it's very much. The reason the price of the drug is so high is that there's zero competition. CPC in auction-style ads is driven upwards by competitive pressure.
lalos 7y ago
Here are some ideas: - If you have a call with your doctor that probably is specialized in that specific condition, that metadata would be good enough to guess that condition. - Some doctors send appointment reminders via email, if you use gmail that would explain the youtube ad - If you use the wifi/gps at that doctor office, and some other patient also uses the wifi/gps and they use google to search for those conditions, that would be enough to link you with them. This could be any website making the link and tying all those people as similar. - Close friends and family that research about your condition, would also point to you having that condition. Would probably use google to research, that would explain ads on youtube. They would also see ads for that and actually even might click on them because they would be interested on it.
- bduerst 7y ago
  >Some doctors send appointment reminders via email, if you use gmail that would explain the youtube ad Google stopped mining Gmail for ad targeting years ago: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/technology/gmail-ads.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/technology/gmail-ads.html
  - EastSmith 7y ago
    While this may be true, recently I started using Google Flights and couple of days later I started receiving email ads (ads in Gmail) about flight cancelation insurance. So the link is there.
    - bduerst 7y ago
      That's entirely different to what we're discussing. You will still be targeted based on sites your visited, but not based on emails you receive.
  - lalos 7y ago
    Language is not clear enough, scan is different from metadata. I can see a lawyer defining scan as checking every word of the content and metadata being account Foo sends email to account Bar. That would be enough to make the connection. Foo account later uses google to search about topic A then topic A is presented to account Bar.
patmcguire 7y ago
Are there any alternatives? It often gets very weird at the high end of drug prices, but usually in a way that inverts normal economic logic - this story from a few years ago blew my mind https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13995249#13996448 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13995249#13996448

globuous 7y ago

That’s so messed up. What do you think of advertisements for drugs in general? Have they been helpful finding treatment for your condition ? They are illegal where i’m from i believe (i’ve never seen one myself except in the us). Btw, this reminds of this absolutely hilarious story i think i first heard of here on HN: https://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-pranking-my-roommate-with-targeted-facebook-ads/ https://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-pranking...

merpnderp 7y ago
I’m betting these advertisements are for healthcare providers.
RL_Quine 7y ago
There’s basically one treatment, and one only that any specialist would recommend at this point, so it’s effectively moot other than the question of it being covered by whatever healthcare or insurance you can muster up. The alternative and older drugs tend to have some rather horrific side effects (detaching your retinas, making your skin detach in some cases) but are very cheap, nobody would choose them if they had the better option. I’m sort of confused in general what advertising for these sort of drugs actually achieves. It’s not like the patient really has a deciding ability (other than live or die if they can’t afford it), so all it does is act as a constant reminder of how financially screwed you are.
thfuran 7y ago
There's basically some segment of the population who will demand $SOME_DRUG_THEY_SAW_ADS_FOR and will change doctors repeatedly until they can get a prescription for it, even if there are better alternatives that were recommended by the previous doctors. Eliminating direct advertisement won't completely avoid that since there will always be blogs full of crazy nonsense or whatever, but I don't think there's any reason that consumers should be getting targeted for ads for things they can't even legally buy.
- noir_lord 7y ago
  It's illegal to do that in the UK and therefore we have no (major) issues like you describe. One of those regulations that is a net good to society. Interesting video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic_FpRG7Z_k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic_FpRG7Z_k

jiveturkey 7y ago

> I’ve always wondered what the cost per click for an advertisement for a $100,000/yr drugs is. I doubt it's very much. The reason the price of the drug is so high is that there's zero competition. CPC in auction-style ads is driven upwards by competitive pressure.

lalos 7y ago

Here are some ideas: - If you have a call with your doctor that probably is specialized in that specific condition, that metadata would be good enough to guess that condition. - Some doctors send appointment reminders via email, if you use gmail that would explain the youtube ad - If you use the wifi/gps at that doctor office, and some other patient also uses the wifi/gps and they use google to search for those conditions, that would be enough to link you with them. This could be any website making the link and tying all those people as similar. - Close friends and family that research about your condition, would also point to you having that condition. Would probably use google to research, that would explain ads on youtube. They would also see ads for that and actually even might click on them because they would be interested on it.

bduerst 7y ago
>Some doctors send appointment reminders via email, if you use gmail that would explain the youtube ad Google stopped mining Gmail for ad targeting years ago: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/technology/gmail-ads.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/technology/gmail-ads.html
- EastSmith 7y ago
  While this may be true, recently I started using Google Flights and couple of days later I started receiving email ads (ads in Gmail) about flight cancelation insurance. So the link is there.
  - bduerst 7y ago
    That's entirely different to what we're discussing. You will still be targeted based on sites your visited, but not based on emails you receive.
- lalos 7y ago
  Language is not clear enough, scan is different from metadata. I can see a lawyer defining scan as checking every word of the content and metadata being account Foo sends email to account Bar. That would be enough to make the connection. Foo account later uses google to search about topic A then topic A is presented to account Bar.

patmcguire 7y ago

Are there any alternatives? It often gets very weird at the high end of drug prices, but usually in a way that inverts normal economic logic - this story from a few years ago blew my mind https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13995249#13996448 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13995249#13996448