Going with Eric's restless leg example...I've gotten that quite a bit and I still do from time to time. Yes it's uncomfortable and annoying and a whole barrage of nuissances. I was intrigued when I saw the commercial...BUT then I thought, jesus christ they're making a drug for everything these days...and then I thought, who in their right mind would want to change restless legs for a bleeding anus or a stroke (or maybe one of the actual, yet equally horrid, side-effects).
The way that drug companies go about it is they showcase someone with a problem and how happy they are on these drugs, but magically the side-effects are nothing more than some legal talk and also quite well placed with the scenery of the commercial. Prescription drugs are by no means the answer to all problems, in most of these cases displayed on tv I would say they're not the solution by a long shot.
Being Canadian we do get much of the same television as many channels come from a US station, so we're getting bombarded with these commercials as well. I don't know if its the same frequency or volume as other places, but I'd say its close since I knew exactly what the restless legs commercial was