Television and print advertising, once confined to touting over-the-counter (OTC) remedies for coughs, colds, headaches, and hemorrhoids, now tempt consumers with the latest cures—available by prescription only—for migraines, depression, high cholesterol, arthritis, asthma, and allergies. The result of these ads is that the prescription decisions that doctors used to make for their patients are now being made by patients themselves, who request (or even demand) certain drugs by name from their doctors. Some analysts argue that patients have been brainwashed into self-diagnoses by slick advertising campaigns that drive up the cost of drugs, while others maintain that intelligent health care buyers are now empowered by knowledge previously unavailable to them. Whether it is a communications innovation that is helping to improve America’s health care system or an advertising mutation that...