Taking the Short Cut

Today, the FDA advised Zicam customers to "stop using three products marketed over-the-counter as cold remedies because they are associated with the loss of sense of smell (anosmia)." The warning does not apply to the company's signature spray product, but it does apply to Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Gel and Nasal Swabs. According to Janet Woodcock, M.D., Director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), "consumers may unknowingly use a product that could cause serious harm, and therefore we are advising them not to use these products for any reason."

Apparently the FDA has received over 130 reports of loss of smell, many of which occurred in the patient's first dose. And this isn't the first time. In 2006, Zicam settled a class action lawsuit worth $12 million over the exact same issue. Dr. Terence Davidson, Director of the University of California Nasal Dysfunction Clinic, says that if you "put zinc on the olfactory receptor [...] you effectively kill the receptor. It's like pouring acid on an open wound."

This presents an interesting case study in the American consumer's constant desire for shortcut remedies and our willingness to blindly trust decades old product research of a "homeopathic, natural" product and a bureaucratic federal overseer. Marketing Daily reported back in February that consumers are switching to generics and cutting down on how much of a drug they take, and the Kaiser Family Foundation's Feb. 09 poll indicated that 36% of consumers are relying on home remedies and OTCs instead of seeing a doctor. So what does this mean?

Of course, the economic downturn has made people more willing to seek out cheaper solutions to their problems. But there's more to it than that. Customers are completely changing the way they incorporate products into their world view. Flash back to 2003 - it was all about who's got the newest Escalade or the condo in Vermont. Six years later, upper-class women are hosting private shopping parties for their friends at home to avoid the embarrassment of carrying that suitcase-sized Barney's bag home. Labels are no longer our identities, but rather something to be shed, and companies are no longer trusted after the WorldCom/Enron/Lehman/...etc. debacles.

Everything is do-it-yourself, and people are eating it up. Companies would be wise to provide products that equip customers with customizable products to improve their own lives, rather than trying to always offer a one-size-fits-all solution. Clearly, more studies are needed on the side effects of zinc-based cold remedies like Zicam before they should be trusted for general use if they are obliterating people's senses. For now, I recommend sticking with a classically reliable and always trendy glass of OJ - and you can choose how much pulp.