Case Analysis - A Tylenol Crisis

9 Pages 2301 Words

Introduction
The following paper will discuss the effectiveness of the communication between Johnson and Johnson in regards to the Tylenol crisis and its intended publics. It will identify the publics involved while differentiated between internal and external. Further discussion of the impacts of the communication, how and if it could have been done more effectively will take place. Public relations tools and techniques, along with benefits and risks will be identified, and the paper will conclude by discussing, what could done differently, had this crisis occurred today.
Effective Communication
The Tylenol Murder case is a perfect example of an effective public relations campaign. These incidents occurred over a four year period of time within the same company. Bottles of Tylenol Extra Strength Capsules had been tampered with, and people had taking the medication for simple reasons, and died. The first thing that Johnson and Johnson did in the face of this crisis was to recall 93,000 bottles of the extra strength Tylenol capsules associated with the murders and then five days later when a copycat poisoning occurred Johnson and Johnson recalled all extra strength Tylenol bottles at a cost of more than 100 million dollars (Seitel, 2004, p 44).
Johnson and Johnson as a company had done nothing wrong; however they began a campaign immediately that was two fold. The first as already stated was to recall all bottles of extra strength Tylenol capsules, which assisted in managing the crisis. Johnson and Johnson also encouraged consumer’s via media across the nation not to consume any Tylenol products, and not to resume use until the extent of the tampering could be determined. Then Johnson and Johnson offered to exchange all Tylenol capsules that had already been purchased for caplets (Kaplan, 2005, p 3 & 5).
The second phase of the campaign was that Tylenol extra strength was reintroduced with a new triple seal tamper resista...