The Tylenol Mafia Read Online Free PDF

name, said Jerry Della Femina , a well-known, outspoken advertising executive. “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.” The expert consensus was that Tylenol was dead as a brand.
    No one predicted that Johnson & Johnson would emerge from the Tylenol crisis with a reputation more highly regarded than before its best selling product was linked to seven murders. But it happened. Public Relations Vice President, Larry Foster, explained that Johnson & Johnson simply turned to their corporate business philosophy, known as “Our Credo,” when deciding how to handle the Tylenol situation. Johnson & Johnson still considers its handling of this crisis to be the finest example of the company’s adherence to the high ethical standards of the Credo.
    J&J president David Clare said, “Looking back on the events, crisis planning did not see us through this tragedy nearly as much as the sound business management philosophy that is embodied in our Credo. It was the Credo that prompted the decisions that enabled us to make the right early decisions that eventually led to the comeback phase.”
    James Burke agreed. “The guidance of the Credo played the most important role in the company’s decision-making,” he said. “After the crisis was over we realized that no meeting had been called to make the first critical decision. Every one of us knew what we had to do. We had the Credo to guide us.”
      “The Tylenol crisis is without a doubt the most exemplary case ever known in the history of crisis communications,” proclaimed public relations expert, Ten Berge. “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.”
    Johnson & Johnson’s handling of the Tylenol crisis has been ingrained into the psyche of American consumers as the gold standard of crisis management and a standard widely accepted as a model of righteous corporate behavior to which all companies should aspire. Even today, companies in the midst of a major crisis are measured against the standard long attributed to Johnson & Johnson. That standard, however, is based on a myth - a cleverly crafted illusion propagated by the media and public relations industries with plenty of help from Johnson & Johnson. Only a few public relations experts view J&J’s actions in a less than favorable light.
    Jack O’Dwyer, of the New York City public relations firm, O’Dwyer PR, has been steadfast in his criticism of the mischaracterization by academia, the media, and the PR industry of J&J’s handling of the Tylenol crisis. Johnson & Johnson did not act quickly in initiating the recall, and they were not at all open to the media, says O’Dwyer. He has been especially critical of Johnson & Johnson’s decision to continue selling the fatally flawed capsule version of Tylenol. The capsules presented the greatest risk for tampering because they could be easily opened and the medicine inside replaced with poison.
    Counselor Helio Fred Garcia, of the public relations firm, Clark & Weinstock , said the myth about the Tylenol disaster is that the company reacted within 24 hours. Perpetuating this myth, said Garcia, was the 1999 movie The Insider, starring Russell Crowe as a tobacco industry whistleblower and Al Pacino as a journalist covering the story. In one dramatic scene, Crowe says to Pacino , “James Burke, the CEO of Johnson & Johnson...when he found out that some lunatic had put poison in Tylenol bottles, he didn’t argue with the FDA... He didn’t even wait for the FDA to tell him. He just pulled Tylenol off every shelf of every store right across America - Instantly. And then he developed the safety cap... Because, look, as a CEO, sure, he’s gotta be