Case Study: The Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis

Before the crisis, Tylenol was the most successful over-the-counter product
in the United States with over one hundred million users. Tylenol was
responsible for 19 percent of Johnson & Johnson's corporate profits during
the first 3 quarters of 1982. Tylenol accounted for 13 percent of Johnson &
Johnson's year-to-year sales growth and 33 percent of the company's year-
to-year profit growth. Tylenol was the absolute leader in the painkiller field
accounting for a 37 percent market share, outselling the next four leading
painkillers combined, including Anacin, Bayer, Bufferin, and Excedrin. Had
Tylenol been a corporate entity unto itself, profits would have placed it in
the top half of the Fortune 500 (Berge, 1998).

During the fall of 1982, for reasons not known, a malevolent person or
persons, presumably unknown, replaced Tylenol Extra-Strength capsules
with cyanide-laced capsules, resealed the packages, and deposited them
on the shelves of at least a half-dozen or so pharmacies, and food stores in
the Chicago area. The poison capsules were purchased, and seven
unsuspecting people died a horrible death. Johnson & Johnson, parent
company of McNeil Consumer Products Company which makes Tylenol,
suddenly, and with no warning, had to explain to the world why its trusted
product was suddenly killing people (Berge, 1998).

Primary Evidence. Robert Andrews, assistant director for public relations at

Johnson & Johnson recalls how the company reacted in the first days of
the crisis: "We got a call from a Chicago news reporter. He told us that the
medical examiner there had just given a press conference-people were
dying from poisoned Tylenol. He wanted our comment. As it was the first
knowledge we had here in this department, we told him we knew nothing
about it. In that first call we learned more from the reporter than he did from
us." Andrew's dilemma points out something that has become more
prevalent with the expansion of 24 hour electronic media. The media will
often be the first on the scene, thus have information about the crisis before
the organization does (Berge, 1990).

Johnson & Johnson chairman, James Burke, reacted to the negative media
coverage by forming a seven-member strategy team. The team's strategy
guidance from Burke was first, "How do we protect the people?" and
second "How do we save this product?" The company's first actions were
to immediately alerted consumers across the nation, via the media, not to
consume any type of Tylenol product. They told consumers not to resume
using the product until the extent of the tampering could be determined.
Johnson & Johnson, along with stopping the production and advertising of
Tylenol, withdraw all Tylenol capsules from the store shelves in Chicago
and the surrounding area. After finding 2 more contaminated bottles
Tylenol realized the vulnerability of the product and ordered a national
withdraw of every capsule (Broom, 1994).

By withdrawing all Tylenol, even though there was little chance of

discovering more cyanide laced tablets; Johnson & Johnson showed that
they were not willing to take a risk with the public's safety, even if it cost the
company millions of dollars. The end result was the public viewing Tylenol
as the unfortunate victim of a malicious crime (Broom, 1994).

Johnson & Johnson also used the media, both PR and paid advertising to
communicate their strategy during the crisis. Johnson & Johnson used the
media to issue a national alert to tell the public not to use the Tylenol
product. In the first week of the crisis Johnson & Johnson established a 1-
800 hot line for consumers to call. The company used the 1-800 number to
respond to inquires from customers concerning safety of Tylenol. They also
establish a toll-free line for news organizations to call and receive pre-taped
daily messages with updated statements about the crisis (Berge, 1990).

Before the crisis Johnson & Johnson had not actively sought press
coverage, but as a company in crisis they recognized the benefits of open
communications in clearly disseminating warnings to the public as well as
the company's stand (Broom, 1994).

Several major press conferences were held at corporate headquarters.

Within hours an internal video staff set up a live television feed via satellite
to the New York metro area. This allowed all press conferences to go
national. Jim Burke got more positive media exposure by going on 60
Minutes and the Donahue show and giving the public his command
messages (Fink, 1986).

Johnson & Johnson communicated their new triple safety seal packaging- a
glued box, a plastic sear over the neck of the bottle, and a foil seal over the
mouth of the bottle, with a press conference at the manufacturer's
headquarters. Tylenol became the first product in the industry to use the
new tamper resistant packaging just 6 months after the crisis occurred
(Berge, 1990).
Secondary Evidence. The initial media reports focused on the deaths of
American citizens from a trusted consumer product. In the beginning the
product tampering was not known, thus the media made a very negative
association with the brand name.

All 3 networks lead with the Tylenol story on the first day of the crisis. CBS
put a human face on the story which contained the following: "When 12
year-old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village, Ill., awoke at dawn with cold
symptoms; her parents gave her one Extra-Strength Tylenol and sent her
back to bed. Little did they know, they would wake up at 7:00 a.m. to find
their daughter dying on the bathroom floor." (Kaplin, pg. 1, 1998)
The print media weighed in with equally damaging headlines: Time
Magazine, "Poison Madness in the Midwest," Newsweek, "The Tylenol
Scare," The Washington Post, "Tylenol, Killer or Cure."

The media was not only focused on the deaths but it was also pervasive.
Throughout the crisis over 100,000 separate news stories ran in U.S.
newspapers, and hundreds of hours of national and local television
coverage. A post crisis study by Johnson & Johnson said that over 90
percent of the American population had heard of the Chicago deaths due to
cyanide-laced Tylenol within the first week of the crisis. Two news clipping
services found over 125,000 news clippings on the Tylenol story. One of
the services claimed that this story had been given the widest US news
coverage since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Kaplin,
1998).

Media reporting would continue to focus on Tylenol killing people until more
information about what caused the deaths was made available. In most
crises media will focus on the sensational aspects of the crisis, and then
follow with the cause as they learn more about what happened.

Scholarly Journals. Scholars have come to recognize Johnson & Johnson's

handling of the Tylenol crisis as the example for success when confronted
with a threat to an organization's existence. Berge lauds the case in the
following manner, "The Tylenol crisis is without a doubt the most exemplary
case ever known in the history of crisis communications. Any business
executive, who has ever stumbled into a public relations ambush, ought to
appreciate the way Johnson & Johnson responded to the Tylenol
poisonings. They have effectively demonstrated how major business has to
handle a disaster." (pg. 19, 1990)
The Tylenol case was the bases for many of the crisis communications
strategies developed by researchers over the last 20 years. Berg's suffering
strategy and Benoit's Rectification strategies both were developed from
doing case studies of how Johnson & Johnson handled the Tylenol
poisonings (Coombs, 1995).

Discussion. The crises category in the Johnson & Johnson Tylenol case is
Terrorism. Combs defines terrorism as intentional actions taken by external
actors designed to harm the organization directly (hurt employees or
customers) or indirectly (reduce sales or disrupt production). Product
tampering, hostage taking, sabotage, and workplace violence are examples
of terrorism. The violent, outside agent promotes attributions of external
locus and uncontrollability.

The Tylenol product tampering clearly fits the Terrorism category. An

external agent, presumably, acted to hurt the customers and possibly the
employees of Johnson & Johnson. The other categories, Faux Pas,
Accidents, or Transgression do not fit in the Tylenol case, so there was no
cross-categorization in this case.

Crisis Response Strategies used by Johnson & Johnson: Johnson &

Johnson employed Forgiveness and Sympathy strategy for this crisis.
Forgiveness strategy seeks to win forgiveness from the various publics and
create acceptance for the crisis.

Johnson & Johnson used Remediation and Rectification, both Forgiveness

strategies, in the Tylenol crisis. Remediation offers some form of
compensation to help victims of the crisis. Johnson & Johnson provided the
victim's families counseling and financial assistance even though they were
not responsible for the product tampering. Negative feelings by the public
against Johnson & Johnson were lessoned as the media showed them take
positive actions to help the victim's families (Berg, 1990).

Rectification involves taking action to prevent a recurrence of the crisis in

the future. Johnson & Johnson's development of Triple sealed packaging is
an example of rectification. They also developed new random inspection
procedures before the shipment of Tylenol to retailers (Berg, 1990).

Sympathy strategy was a big component of Johnson & Johnson's crisis

communication strategy. Sympathy strategy wins support from the public
by portraying the organization as the unfair victim of an attack from an
outside entity. Johnson & Johnson's willingness to accept losses by pulling
the Tylenol product developed sympathy with the public (Berg & Robb,
1992).

The Johnson & Johnson Tylenol crisis is an example of how an

organization should communicate with the various publics during a crisis.
The organization's leadership set the example from the beginning by
making public safety the organizations number one concern. This is
particularity important given the fact that Johnson & Johnson's main
mission with Tylenol is to enhance the public's well-being or heath.

Although Johnson & Johnson's leadership performed superbly during the

crisis there were some important areas Tylenol improved upon after the
crisis. Johnson & Johnson did not have a proactive public affairs program
before the crisis. The only media relations engaged in by Johnson &
Johnson was in the advertising and marketing area. In the early stages of
the crisis Tylenol was informed about what was going on from a Chicago
reporter. If this particular reporter had been more contentious or adversarial
the whole crisis may have taken on a different form in the public's
perception.

Johnson & Johnson's failure to employ/establish a positive relationship with

the media, a key stakeholder, forced the company to respond to the crisis
in an advertising-like manner. Johnson & Johnson received criticism from
the media for not being genuine due to the slick sales-like response ads
run during the crisis. The personal messages with the media from the CEO
of the organization enabled Johnson & Johnson to overcome this problem.
Today Johnson & Johnson has completely recovered its market share lost
during the crisis. The organization was able to reestablish the Tylenol
brand name as one to the must trusted over-the-counter consumer
products in American. Johnson & Johnson's handing of the Tylenol crisis is
clearly the example other companies should follow if the find themselves on
the brink of losing everything.

Tylenol's Maker Shows How to Respond to

Crisis
By Jerry Knight
October 11, 1982
Any business executive who has ever stumbled into a public relations ambush ought to appreciate
the way Johnson & Johnson is responding to the Tylenol poisonings.

Extra Strength Tylenol capsules may not survive in the marketplace, but Johnson & Johnson
executives have effectively communicated the message that Tylenol is as much a victim as the
people who swallowed cyanide-laced capsules.

Though the hysteria and frustration generated by random murder have often obscured the
company's actions, Johnson & Johnson has effectively demonstrated how a major business ought
to handle a disaster.

This is no Three Mile Island accident in which the company's response did more damage than the
original incident. There has been no Nixonian "modified limited hang-out" at the J&J
headquarters in New Brunswick, N.J.

No one at the McNeil Consumer Products subsidiary has tried to pretend that nothing is wrong,
as Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. officials did when the Firestone 500 tires were disintegrating.

Nor has the company yielded to the temptation to pillory the media, not even when sensation-
seekers tried to link a suicide in Philadelphia in April to the murders in Chicago last week. Not
even the publicity-grabbing Chicago prosecutor -- who just happens to be running for higher
office -- has been able to prompt a backlash from the company.

What J&J executives have done is communicate the message that the company is candid, contrite
and compassionate, committed to solving the murders and protecting the public.

The temptation to disclaim any possible connection between the product and the murders must
have been difficult for the manufacturer to resist, yet there is no evidence J&J even considered
trying to tough it out. Expressing horror at the deaths, the company moved quickly to trace the
lot numbers of the poisoned packages and almost immediately posted a $100,000 reward for the
killer.

When investigators issued a warning not to take any Tylenol capsules, the manufacturer did not
whimper about over-reaction, though surely it might have.

Rather than resist, Johnson & Johnson has carefully, one step at a time, escalated its actions to
deal with the crisis. First it shut down the Tylenol capsule production line, then it withdrew all
capsules from sale. McNeil executives went on ABC's Night Line and the other networks' morning
news shows to promise the capsules would not return to the shelves until a tamper-proof package
had been perfected.

Finally on Thursday, J&J offerred to exchange all Tylenol capsules for Tylenol tablets. More than
22 million bottles of Tylenol capsules are believed to be in consumers' medicine chests and on
pharmacists' shelves, almost $80 million worth of the drug at retail prices. There may not be a
drop of cyanide in any of those bottles, but all of them will be destroyed, the company decided on
its own initiative.

Replacing the capsules with tablets will cost Johnson and Johnson tens of millions of dollars, a
stunning amount even for a popular and profitable drug like Tylenol. Almost $400 million worth
of Tylenol was sold last year, more than 40 percent of it in capsule form. Tylenol was the best-
selling single product of the $5.4 billion company that is best known for Band-aids and baby
products.
The company won't talk about its strategy but does acknowledge it has three task forces at work
trying to rescue the reputation of Tylenol.

It's reasonable to speculate that Johnson & Johnson executives did not decide to swallow the cost
of the Tylenol recall simply because they are nice people. Their marketing strategy for Tylenol has
been anything but generous.

With a massive advertising budget, Tylenol simply blew off the shelves every other non-
prescription pain killer. Outselling Anacin, Bayer aspirin, Bufferin and Excedrin, Tylenol became
the number one alternative to aspirin, the most popular over-the-county pain killer with 37
percent of the market.

Tylenol's success was a marketing masterpiece. J&J introduced the drug first to doctors and
hospitals, then built on its reputation as a "professional product" when Tylenol went into the
drug stores and supermarkets.

So much advertising and marketing money was poured into Tylenol that none of the other
makers of acetaminophen pain relievers was ever able to threaten its dominance. Bristol Meyers
took on Tylenol by launching Datril in the mid-1970s, but had to settle for a paltry 3 percent of
the market.

Some marketing mavens believe Tylenol is doomed by doubts that will remain even if the Chicago
murders are solved. "I don't think they can ever sell another product under that name," Madison
Avenue advertising genius Jerry Della Femina told The New York Times. "There may be an
advertising person who thinks he can solve this and if they find him, I want to hire him, because
then I want him to turn our water cooler into a wine cooler."

Della Femina isn't the only consumer product specialist who thinks Johnson & Johnson will need
a savior to keep Tylenol alive, but the moves made so far by J&J are the right ones regardless of
whether Tylenol tries to become a born-again success or is laid to rest.

Their decision to recall and destroy all the capsules should quickly remove the product from
public attention. At the same time, the recall creates a vacuum on the drug store shelves, a space
waiting to be filled by a new Tylenol package or a new acetaminophen pain medication from
McNeil Laboratories.

From the day the deaths were linked to the poisoned Tylenol until the recall on Thursday,
Johnson & Johnson has succeeded in portraying itself to the public as a company willing to do
what's right regardless of cost.

Serving the public interest has simultaneously saved the company's reputation. That lesson in
public responsibility -- and public relations -- will survive at Johnson & Johnson regardless of
what happens to Tylenol.

PR Success Stories: Tylenol Crisis

Averted with Responsive Crisis PR
By Axia Public Relations
March 2, 2013

Background
During the early 1980s, Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) Tylenol suffered a catastrophic
setback due to product tampering that resulted in the deaths of seven people. News
of bottles being laced with cyanide quickly spread, creating a nationwide panic that
was expected to cause irreparable damage to the brand’s image. Many experts
assumed nothing could be done to repair the injury done to J&J’s most profitable
product. However, the pharmaceutical company would embark on a public relations
and media relations strategy that not only minimized reputational harm, but also led
to sales rebounding to pre-crisis levels.
 

Response
Unlike many companies at the time, J&J’s response to the crisis was to place
customer concerns before profits. The company issued a national media statement
warning consumers not to ingest its product. J&J’s selfless response quickly won the
acclaim of outlets such as The Washington Post, which stated that “Johnson &
Johnson has effectively demonstrated how a major business ought to handle a
disaster.” The positive coverage proved crucial in positioning J&J as a company that
cared about the public’s well being, essentially derailing any potential for backlash
against the company and its wide range of products. Once the crisis became
manageable, and in conjunction with coupons and discounts on all Tylenol products,
J&J’s next step involved a fast and aggressive PR campaign that aimed to spread
the message that Tylenol was not only safe, but that the public could rest assured
such a disaster would never happen again. More than 2,000 sales personnel would
deliver presentations to the medical community to strengthen support of
reintroducing Tylenol. Coverage of the painkiller’s redesigned tamper-resistant seal
such as in the Kansas City Times and Advertising Age magazine went hand-in-hand
with statements detailing the company’s road to recovery. A mention in The New
York Times describing Tylenol’s rapid comeback created a wave of like-minded
positive coverage that eventually saw shares climb back up to 24 percent, only six
weeks after the onset of the crisis.
 

Outcome
The PR response proved to be an enormous success – a case study of crisis
management. Tylenol quickly regained its 37-percent pre-crisis market share. The
fact that such a circumstance could easily have meant the end for the brand
demonstrated J&J’s effective use of PR and the media, which allowed the company
to salvage and completely turn around its tarnished reputation. Thanks to positive
news coverage and despite claims to the contrary, Tylenol would remain one of
America’s top-selling pharmaceutical painkillers.

Brilliant Public Relations Strategies That Saved

Johnson and Johnson’s Tylenol
from Disappearance
Posted onSEPTEMBER 19, 2016
Summary
The following case study will be about one of the most brilliant and successful
crisis management strategies in the history of public relations field. “Early on the
morning of Sept. 29, 1982, a tragic, medical mystery began with a sore throat and a
runny nose” (Markel, 2014). Twelve-year-old Mary Kellerman, girl from Chicago
area, took a capsule of Tylenol, painkiller and best-selling Johnson & Johnson’s
product. Soon after taking a pill girl was found dead. Terrible news spread across
the nation: seven citizens of Chicago died after taking poisoned, cyanide-laced
Tylenol capsules. “Though the hysteria and frustration generated by random
murder have often obscured the company’s actions, Johnson & Johnson has
effectively demonstrated how a major business ought to handle a disaster” (Knight,
1982).

The company took the most important step in order to rehabilitate their image:
Johnson & Johnson’s “placed consumers first by recalling 31 million bottles of
Tylenol capsules from store shelves and offering replacement product in the safer
tablet form free of charge” (Rehak, 2002). Instead of letting horrifying news create
hysteria among people, company immediately arranged a crisis management plan,
which became “an iconic benchmark in Crisis Management” (Anand, 2012). J&J
was not hiding from the problem but openly and freely talked about it with the
public, mass media and officials. James Burke, a chairman, is remembered by his
extraordinary decision to pull Tylenol pills off all the shelves across the country.
Moreover, in the press conference Mr. Burke provided the full chronology of steps
undertaken to handle the crisis “only a month and a half after the tragedy” (Rehak,
2002).
 Research
We can identify primary and secondary research in the Tylenol crisis. Johnson &
Johnson’s management created a plan, according to which customers’ safety was a
priority and it stood before any financial problems. Firstly, J&J company proved to
the authorities that there were no unnecessary manipulations with the elements of
painkiller, and lethal dose of cyanide was not added during the production.
Johnson & Johnson’s speaker made a statement to the media about the strict
control on the enterprises and the impossibility of getting the poison in the
capsules.

Two stakeholder groups can be identified, such as Tylenol’s consumers and

Johnson & Johnson company. Tylenol was company’s bestselling product used by
lots of people but after the deaths caused by poisoning with that product, sells fell
to zero in a day. People were terrified and in a glimpse of an eye Tylenol became a
synonym of the word “danger”. Both sides suffered from the emerged crisis.

The important role in research was played by media because media professionals
found out about the tragedy before the company Here is the quote by Robert
Andrews, who is known as an assistant director for PR at J&J. “We got a call from
a Chicago news reporter. He told us that the medical examiner there had just given
a press conference-people were dying from poisoned Tylenol. He wanted our
comment. As it was the first knowledge we had here in this department, we told
him we knew nothing about it. In that first call we learned more from the reporter
than he did from us” (Andrews). Johnson & Johnson turned to their credo,
formulated by founder, which states the responsibility to consumers. Soon after the
tragedy, aforementioned James Burke made a hard decision to pull down all
advertising for the Tylenol and recall “all of its products from store shelves, a
move that cost Johnson & Johnson millions of dollars” (Latson, 2014).

Objectives
According to Wilcox, Cameron, Reber and Shin (2013) “once the situation or
problem is understood, the next step is to establish objectives for the program”
(p.105). Two the most important objectives were formulated to deal with the
Tylenol crisis: protection of customers’ health and saving the product itself. In
spite of all the financial losses the company showed willingness to help customers
in the first place.

The company placed consumers “first by recalling 31 million bottles of Tylenol

capsules from store shelves and offering replacement product in the safer tablet
form free of charge” (Rehak, 2002). Johnson & Johnson provided coupons with
$2.50 off on all Tylenol products. Another important fact is that Mary Kellerman’s
death occurred on Sept. 29, 1982, and poisoned Tylenol capsules were pulled off
the shelves on Oct. 5, 1982. This action shows the company’s reaction on the
tragedy and their interest in the consumers because J&J removed the product
almost at lightning speed.

J&J decided to save the product by revealing new secure packaging. “Johnson &
Johnson communicated their new triple safety seal packaging- a glued box, a
plastic sear over the neck of the bottle, and a foil seal over the mouth of the bottle,
with a press conference at the manufacturer’s headquarters. Tylenol became the
first product in the industry to use the new tamper resistant packaging just 6
months after the crisis occurred” (Berge, 1990).

Programming
“Tactics use the tools of communication to reach audiences with key messages”
(Wilcox et.al., 2013). Johnson & Johnson’s chairman, James Burke created tactics
to protect Tylenol and handle the crisis effectively.

Tactics for this case can be divided into two phases, the first one was controlling
the process of the crisis. J&J worked closely with media and showed care for the
customers’ health by revealing strict quality control rules. As it was written before,
after the messages about the deaths of people, Tylenol was withdrawn from the
shelves without delay. Also, the company cooperated with the FBI, Chicago Police
and the FDA and “almost immediately posted a $100,000 reward for the killer”
(Knight, 1982). The company used analysis that not only helped to increase public
awareness but also gave company a chance to search for organizers of the tragedy.
After these steps public image of Johnson & Johnson was positively covered in
media, which helped them in dealing with the crisis.

The second phase was about creating the public relations plan. J&J created tablets
instead of capsules and gave special coupons for them. According to Zoulas, more
than “2250 sales people made presentations for the medical community to restore
confidence on the product”. The other step was targeted at reestablishing pricing
system that gave customers up to 25% off when buying the Tylenol tablets.

The company “even issued national warnings urging the public not to take Tylenol
and established a hotline for worried customers to call” (Latson, 2014). These steps
definitely increased public awareness and helped to reestablish and rebuild Johnson
& Johnson’s image. The removal of all Tylenol products showed to the public that
Johnson & Johnson company did not want to endanger safety of their customers.
“The end result was the public viewing Tylenol as the unfortunate victim of a
malicious crime” (Broom, Center & Cutlip, 1994). During the first week of an
incident Johnson & Johnson “established a 1-800 hot line and a toll-free line for
news organizations to call and receive pre-taped daily messages”, they could also
receive frequently updated news about the crisis (Berge, 1990).
Communication strategies. We can name different communication strategies that
were used during Tylenol’s crisis management. Sympathy and forgiveness
strategies are among them. J&J company won customers’ sympathy by showing
themselves as victims of a terrifying and unfair act. Also, by placing customers’
health on the first place, the company won public’s sympathy. J&J’s top
management came to the funeral of the first three victims of Tylenol poisoning,
which was broadcasted nationally and live. The whole country saw the director of
the company crying at the funeral. Forgiveness strategy aims to receive forgiveness
from the public by showing consistent steps of resolving the problem. Tylenol
crisis communication management highlighted all the steps in the media. The third
strategy used in Tylenol campaign was rectification, which means taking an action
to prevent the repetition.
In the end, we can say these tactics were used effectively and were activated
straightway. Immediate response of the company and developing of the effective
public relations plan helped J&J rehabilitate their image.

Evaluation
While evaluating the outcomes, we can formulate several points:

1. The Tylenol campaign received a positive coverage in the media;

2. The news coverage for this crisis stands on the second place after the John
F. Kennedy assassination;
3. The FDA and Department of Health & Human Services created new set of
rules for more secure packaging;
4. Regained market share, just like before the crisis;
5. Honored with “American Corporate Conscience Award”.
The FDA not only created new set of rules but also “in 1983, the U.S. Congress
passed what was called “the Tylenol bill,” making it a federal offense to tamper
with consumer products. In 1989, the FDA established federal guidelines for
manufacturers to make all such products tamper-proof” (Markel, 2014).

“Tylenol’s success was a marketing masterpiece. J&J introduced the drug first to
doctors and hospitals, then built on its reputation as a “professional product” when
Tylenol went into the drug stores and supermarkets” (Knight, 1982). According to
approximate estimation, Johnson & Johnson spent about $170 million on saving
Tylenol. Tylenol’s campaign has no analogues in the world’s pharmaceutical
practice because, as a rule, the company withdraws the drug only by taking it from
production (for example, after the discovery of the lethal side effects).

Chicago Tylenol murders in 1982 caused the death of six people. For the company
Johnson & Johnson – the manufacturer of the drug – it meant the loss of the best-
selling brand and millions of financial losses. Most analysts predicted the death of
Tylenol. However, soon after the resolving of the crisis, Johnson & Johnson’s costs
were fully justified. By the end of 1982 Tylenol regained 25% of the U.S. market
of antipyretics and analgesics (painkillers and antipyretics). A year later, Tylenol
finally recovered from the crisis and almost reached the level of 35% -the index it
had back in the mid-1982.

The way Johnson & Johnson company was dealing with Tylenol’s crisis made a
great example of effective communication between a company and public in a
moment of crisis. Back in 1982 Tylenol was company’s best-selling product and
still stays the market’s leader in OTC pharmaceutical, antipyretic and analgesic
products in the United States to present day. The company has put a lot of effort in
gaining and winning back public’s trust. Public relations professionals created a
coherent set of actions to recover from the crisis situation and reestablish
company’s image.

Discussion
Right after the crisis emerged and was heavily covered in media, a lot of experts
hurried on to put a period on the rescue of Tylenol production. No one actually
believed that this kind of situation can be solved positively and, moreover, in
company’s favor. People in the industry, consumers, and employers were
panicking, no one believed in the future of the product.

Jerry Della Femina often called an “advertising genius”, said following famous
words about the Tylenol poisoning: “I don’t think they can ever sell another
product under that name. There may be an advertising person who thinks he can
solve this and if they find him, I want to hire him, because then I want him to turn
our water cooler into a wine cooler.” (Knight, 1982). Fortunately, the whole
situation resolved and positive solutions were found.

Tylenol’s sales came back to their normal indexes within a year and after the
investment of $100 million for future benefits. This product again became
America’s number one choice in painkillers, while not so long ago production of
Tylenol was destined to collapse and doomed to fall. Instead, company’s brilliant
approach in dealing with the crisis situation made critics to change their minds.

Critics who had prematurely announced the death of the brand Tylenol were now
praising the company’s handling of the matter. Indeed, the Johnson & Johnson
recall became a classic case study in business schools across the nation.

Conclusion
In the conclusion I would like to mention some useful lessons and tips that needed
for every public relation practitioner.
 1. Do the best you, have desire to help people;
2. A good reputation will work for a company in the future and help during a
crisis;
3. Consumers, as the public overall, are more ready to trust a company that
cares about their customers;
4. Use variety of strategies and research all the available resources;
5. Sympathy strategy outcome: both stakeholders and the company suffered in
the problem and both of these stakeholders received mutually beneficial
advantages;
6. Always be opened with the public;
7. Every crisis has hidden benefits for the company.
In my opinion, the last bullet point is one of the most important in the list because
it sets up new standards of development within the company. Everyone makes
mistakes, but the lessons retrieved from these mistakes are even more important.
According to Weinraub (2016) “true to the company credo that emphasized
primary responsibility to those who used its products, James E. Burke, chairman of
J&J’s board of directors, adopted a strategy of total transparency and a pro-active
policy to protect the health and safety of Tylenol users, regardless of the cost
involved”. Transparency strategy and willingness of Johnson & Johnson to stay
opened for public comments, concerns and questions, became really important
action steps in dealing with the following crisis situation.

Competent and coherent actions of public relations professionals played key role in
rehabilitating the Johnson &Johnson company’s image. These steps and actions
produced the respect from the customers. “Achieving genuine public trust is a high
calling for the profession” (Wilcox et.al., 2013).

References

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Cutlip, S. M., Center, A. H., & Broom, G. M. (2000). Effective public relations.
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Knight, J. (1982). Tylenol’s Maker Shows How to Respond to Crisis. The
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Latson, J. (2014). How Poisoned Tylenol Became a Crisis-Management Teaching
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