Imagine there’s a product in shops where the UK government heavily regulates the way its sold. You aren’t allowed to advertise it, nor are shops allowed to put it on a deal, for example, including it in a buy-one-get-one-free or a multi-pack. You can’t get reward points on your store loyalty card for buying the product. It can’t be displayed in windows or anywhere prominent in the shop, like near the checkouts.

For their part, the makers of the product have to follow a strict, government-mandated recipe and aren’t allowed to put any nutritional information about the product on its packaging. Nor are they allowed to put a picture of any of the intended users of the product on the box. To cap it off, the government requires them to write a statement on the box saying that it would be better if the buyer wasn’t using the product at all.

You might think that I’m talking about something like tobacco or alcohol: substances that we know can be very damaging and dangerous and are thus subject to detailed laws about their marketing.