It really is not that simple in real life. That's a decent write-up of how advertising is supposed to work for your disruptive yet novel startup, but pharmaceu

It really is not that simple in real life. That's a decent write-up of how advertising is supposed to work for your disruptive yet novel startup, but pharmaceuticals is a more complicated animal. Drugs are things that people "need". If no drug companies advertised, people would still go to their doctors with problems, and doctors would still prescribe medication when necessary (you have some degree of advertising prompting doctor visits, but for the important stuff, and in a system where people are not afraid of the monetary cost of going to a doctor, they'll be going anyway). However currently all drug manufacturers must advertise their products because their competitors advertise their competing products. Anyone who doesn't advertise will be left behind as patients request the drug that they saw on TV. No company wants to be the company that doesn't advertise. Advertising makes advertising necessary. It's a sort of "Advertising Prisoners Dilemma": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma#In_economics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma#In_economics One way to break this is to create laws that forbid advertising. Another is to allow the formation of cartels.