I thought this might be a pretty good post to have by itself because it would carry different comments compared to the other thread, but the reason that so many drug ads are on US television compared to anything else is because the US and New Zealand are the only countries that don't outright ban direct-to-consumer drug advertisements. This ban was lifted under Bill Clinton's FDA in 1997 under the caveat that the ads list all the side effects, but of course they didn't realize how much they'd advertise.
Advertising directly to doctors was never banned, which is how Purdue Pharma, run by the Sackler family, members of the Triple Parentheses Gang, were able to outright lie to doctors about how OxyContin was non-addictive, resulting in its over-prescription and the current opioid epidemic.
https://jheor.org/post/2674-with-tv-drug-ads-what-you-see-is-not-necessarily-what-you-get
In Canada, drug advertisements either can name the brand name of the drug but not the disease it treats. Or can name the disease but not the name of the drug.
But there's still millions & millions spent on drug ads despite these restrictions. For some drugs like Viagra, Tylenol or Advil, drug ads still make sense simply for brand loyalty & market share on legacy drugs that don't need explanations. Similar to how Coke can make ads not about soda.
But the drug ads also push brand new drugs without any mention of disease or indication. These must rely on word-of-mouth, that people will hear about the brand name from friends, anecdotes or MSM and have curiosity & FOMO get them to ask their doc for it directly.
The opposite of the brand-name-only ad approach is the fake PSA where the pharmaceutical companies don't name their drug but try to create new customers for benign diseases & moral panic. There was a campaign not that long ago trying to shame men into treating toenail fungus, implying that it wasn't simply a cosmetic discoloration but in fact a moral failing & a sinister infectious disease that could be spread to others. The campaign featured schoolmarm female doctor hectoring in lab coats talking down to men. The campaign hidden as a PSA seemed to be engineered by whatever company pushes Jublia, a nail lacquer that costs between 600-1000 bucks for the treatment course.