multicultural pr special report - Odwyerpr.com

Tylenol has become PR’s ‘Watergate’By Jack O’DwyerThe tornado of lies and spin that isJohnson & Johnson/Tylenol issweeping up not only J&J itself butthe slavish media that perpetuate themyths. Johnson & Johnson is up to itsears in product recallsthese days resultingin a public apology byCEO Bill Weldon.Almost every storyabout the currentrecalls mentions whata wonderful job J&Jdid in 1982, whenJack O’Dwyerseven people in theChicago area diedafter taking Tylenolcapsules that had been poisoned withpotassium cyanide.Such characterizations are false. There isnothing wonderful about 1982 murders,or the subsequent murder of23-year-old Diane Elsroth in1986 via poisoned Tylenols.Easily-spiked capsules shouldnever have been mass marketedin the first place and definitelynot after seven peoplewere killed with them.J&J brought them Tylenol tomarket knowing the killer wasstill at large and with manyindications that the Tylenolswere poisoned within J&J itself.That is the claim of formeremployee Scott Bartz whoknows a lot about the distributionalpractices of the company.Several PR professors have written thatthe five-day delay in pulling Tylenol capsulesfrom the market should never bereferred to as “immediate” or “instant,”and that there is no way of knowing howmuch the profit motive figured in J&J’sdecision to re-market the capsules.The profs, quoted in the online PRJournal of PRSA hosted by Prof. DonWright, also focus on the rarely mentioned$100K reward that J&J offered inboth the 1982 and 1986 murders. Theywrite that this small sum was J&J’s wayof claiming it had nothing to do with themurders.To this day, the case remains unsolved.Among other interesting statements tobe brought out in a book by Bartz thissummer called “The Tylenol Mafia,” isthat Arthur Hull Hayes Jr., FDAPR’s Watergate?Commissioner in 1982, left the FDA in1983 and signed a ten-year $1,000 permonthcontract with Burson-Marsteller,PR firm for Tylenol.Records dug up by Bartz show thatHayes then became vice chairman andmedical director of NelsonCommunications, founded in 1987 byformer J&J executive Wayne Nelson. Thecompany got 39% of its $86 million inrevenues from J&J in 1996. Nelson headedMcNeil Consumer Products Co., createdto market Tylenol in capsules.J&J’s claim of lack of responsibility isa legal stance and not one that plays in thecourt of public opinion.We have e-mailed media that reflexivelysing the praises of J&J and are havinglittle luck in getting any of them tochange their minds.Media reject Tylenol corrections• The Economist, which said April 10that J&J/Tylenol is the “gold standard ofcrisis management,” blew us off.That remark was in a columncalled “Schumpeter” written byAdrian Woolridge.Business EditorEdward McBride said that “Inthe context of Toyota’s recentfailings, or Tiger Woods’ infidelities,or any of the otherepisodes referred to in the article,J&J’s decision to recallTylenol was very prompt —although the firm may wellhave made subsequent mistakes.“It also seems unfair to saythat such easily spiked capsulesshould never have been marketed. To thisday, supermarkets and drug stores acrossAmerica and around the world remainfull of products that could easily be tamperedwith.”• New York Times reporter NatashaSinger has been unreachable. She praisedJ&J on May 3 for its “fast and adept”handling of the Tylenol murders in 1982.• The Christian Science Monitor,which said Jan. 15 that what J&J did in1982 “is still regarded as a shining exampleof corporate social responsibility,”said it will look at the matter more closely.• “The Motley Fool (fool.com),”which on May 6 said that J&J “hasalways been the poster child for how tohandle a crisis,” was sent one of ourcolumns debunking the Tylenol myths.• Fortune magazine, which on May28, 2007 hailed J&J/Tylenol as the “goldstandard in crisis control,” was sent a columnvia a general Fortune mailbox. Thewriter was Jia Lynn Yant but there is noway of contacting an individual Fortunereporter via e-mail or phone.• Tactics of PRSA, which praised J&Jin a full page in 2007 for providing “anenduring example of crisis managementdone right,” was also sent a column.Tactics editors should read the Society’sPR Journal.• James Lukaszewski, crisis expert forthe Society, said in an e-mail to us that“The 1982 Tylenol incident remains themost internationally recognized successfulcrisis incident response, even after allthese years.”U of F flunks usThe University of Florida College ofJournalism and Communications wascontacted because a posting on its websitecalled “Effective CrisisManagement” says J&J “conducted animmediate product recall,” “knew theywere not responsible for tampering of theproduct,” and put “public safety first.”We asked College Dean John Wright,Ph.D., to correct these false or at leastdebatable statements.Replying was David Carlson,Executive Director, Center for MediaInnovation and Research at the College,who said we offered “nothing but opinion.”He said the piece was by a studentwho quoted the Chicago Sun-Times, J&J,and Mark Mitchell of Economic Assn.Int’l, and the piece will be changed whenthose organizations change their opinions.Media News BriefsGOLFWEEK’S NEW PUBLISHERGolfweek magazine has appointed JasonRedditt to the position of Publisher.Redditt joined Golfweek as a member ofthe magazine’s circulation department beforemoving into ad sales. He also served asGolfweek’s Advertising Director for equipmentand apparel.Golfweek officials said the hire reflects themagazine’s “all-encompassing strategy todiversify the Golfweek brand while furthersolidifying its position as the favorite golfweekly among serious golfers.”Redditt succeeds Clayton Morris, who willcontinue to oversee the brand’s rapidlyexpanding portfolio of offerings with his promotionto group publisher.JUNE 2010 WWW.ODWYERPR.COM 35