preview

Tylenol

Good Essays

Towards the end of September of 1982, seven people died from a Tylenol product tampering on Chicago’s West Side. Before the events, Tylenol had over one hundred million users, and was a total frontrunner in the pain-killer industry. After the tragic events, Johnson & Johnson, parent company of McNeil Consumer Products Company which makes Tylenol, had to face the world and explain why their highly-trusted product was killing its consumers. (Markel, 2014)

The first announced victim was 12-year-old Mary Kellerman. The girl had cold symptoms in the middle of the night, so her parent gave her Extra-Strength Tylenol and sent her back to bed. Next morning, the young girl was found dead in the bathroom. That same morning, Adam Janus took Extra-Strength …show more content…

At first, when the tampering was not known, media focused on the sensationalistic fact that Tylenol was killing people producing a negative image for the brand. But once the real cause was known, Tylenol was seen as a victim of the circumstances.

Before the crisis, Johnson & Johnson was not actively involved with press coverage, but when the event occurred they appreciated the profits of media communication in order to reach out to their consumers faster and more efficiently. Several major press conferences had place at the company’s headquarters. During the course of the events, over 100,000 news stories ran in U. S. newspapers. A post-crisis study done by the own Johnson & Johnson company revealed that over 90 percent of the country population knew about the Tylenol deaths within the first week. (Harris, et al., n.d.).

Experts were predicting an obscure future for the product. Advertising specialist Jerry Della Femina stated that he was almost sure that a product under that name could never be sold again. Femina was far from being right, since Tylenol took short time period to be back in the market, and is still nowadays one of the selling leader of over the counter drugs in the U.S. (Kaplan,

Get Access