Car Commercials will be replacing Drug Commercials

The entire reason there are drug commercials is for big pharma to pay off the propaganda machines

Good. If someone with AIDS needs to see a commercial to get treatment, they're too dumb to save.

More seriously, I don't even know what half the drugs in commercials actually treat but I do know most have some wicked side affects.

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If someone with AIDS needs to see a commercial to get treatment, they're too dumb to save.

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Based off of what?
Pharma not doing drug commercials?

I was wondering how big an impact it would have on the networks if pharma ads were banned.

Tldr: 50-75% of revenue for the cable news networks, 6-10% of revenue for broadcast networks.

Per Grok:

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Pharmaceutical companies are a major source of advertising revenue for TV networks in the United States, though exact figures can vary depending on the source and time frame. Based on available data, the pharmaceutical industry spends billions annually on TV advertising, making it one of the top-spending sectors. In 2020, for instance, the industry invested approximately $4.58 billion on national TV ads, which accounted for about 75% of its total advertising expenditure that year. More recent estimates suggest this trend has continued, with spending reaching around $3.4 billion on linear TV in the first eight months of 2024 alone, reflecting an 8.1% increase year-over-year.

The proportion of TV network revenue derived from these ads depends on the network and its audience. For example, networks like CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, which attract older demographics more likely to be targeted by drug ads, reportedly rely heavily on this revenue stream. Posts on X and some analyses claim that pharmaceutical ads can constitute up to 75% of ad revenue for certain cable news networks, though this figure is not universally verified across all networks. Broader industry reports indicate that pharma ads are a significant but not necessarily dominant portion of total TV ad revenue, which was estimated at $76 billion in 2017. If we extrapolate, the $6.6 billion spent by pharma in a year like 2019 could represent roughly 8-10% of the overall TV ad market, with a higher concentration on specific channels or time slots like evening news.

Given the lack of a single, definitive current statistic for all TV networks combined, a reasonable estimate based on historical and partial data is that pharmaceutical ads likely account for a substantial share—potentially 10-20% of total ad revenue industry-wide, and much higher (up to 50-75%) for certain networks with programming skewed toward older viewers. This variance reflects the industry’s focus on high-value slots and demographics, but precise network-by-network breakdowns would require more granular, up-to-date financial disclosures not fully available here.

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The entire reason there are drug commercials is for big pharma to pay off the propaganda machines

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THIS!!!!!

Given that drugs require a prescription from a professional who is supposed to see a need for them in you, the idea that pharma would have any reason whatsoever to market to you or I the same way a tire company might is just dumb.

Of course, let's be honest here. Pharma is the big dog, but they ain't the only dog doing this.

Advertising budgets make absolutely non sense for most well known brands until you recognize that the ad buys a LOT more than just those 30 seconds.