ABSTRACT
Internet. Discuss the media’s coverage. 7. Discuss how the Tylenol case applies to the crisis communications theories covered in Chapter 3. 8. If the Tylenol crisis occurred today, would you expect the news media to be as
cooperative as they were in 1982? Why or why not? 9. Skills activity: In 1997, Johnson & Johnson informed consumers-through
advertisements, product labels, public service announcements (PSAs)—that too much Tylenol can be harmful to children. Using the following list of facts, write a 30-
second PSA for Johnson & Johnson. (You may not need to use all the information given here.) a. A new infant Tylenol formula is expected to reach stores in 6 to 7 weeks. b. Taking more than the recommended dosage can cause serious health risks. c. Acetaminophen, Tylenol’s active ingredient, has been blamed for liver damage and
even deaths in children. The ingredient is also in Anacin 3 and other pain relievers. d. The FDA admits that accurate dosages are very effective. e. The FDA advised manufacturers of acetaminophen to make changes in product
labeling to warn parents. Johnson & Johnson’s new product labels do just that. Other Product Tampering Cases Gerber Another case of product tampering occurred 3 days after the 1986 Tylenol-tampering crisis. This time the company in crisis was Gerber, which like Johnson & Johnson was a trusted name among parents of small children. Both crises took place in New York. A woman claimed that while feeding her baby, she found bits of glass in a jar of strained peaches. Coming on the heels of the Tylenol case, another “hoax” was an early possibility. The FDA checked 50,000 unopened jars of Gerber baby food produced at the same time as the complainant’s jars and found no glass. Complaints of glass in the Gerber jars turned up in 40 states and some other countries. As in the Diet Pepsi crisis (see chapter 9), the complainants called the media, not law enforcement or health officials, not even Gerber. No glass was ever found in a jar not previously opened. There were other similarities to the Diet Pepsi crisis:
1. Gerber did not recall. It would have had to recall all baby food in jars and suffer a severe financial loss.
