DEREK LOWE ON THE ZICAM DEBACLE: “At any rate, snorting zinc salts has actually been known, for some time now, to injure the sense of smell in some people. So it’s proved with Zicam, with several hundred victims. The moral? If you’re going to sell homeopathic medicine – and boy, is it a lucrative business – make sure that you don’t put anything in there except sterile water. That’ll cut down on your expenses, too, since most ingredients cost more than water, anyway. Stick with that strategy, and you can be absolutely sure that nothing bad will happen to your customers. Nothing good will happen to them either, but they won’t know that. When their cold/headache/whatever goes away of its own accord, they’ll ascribe it to your miracle product.”