Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is home to a wide variety of customer health products, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals, and employs more than 130,000 people globally. Among those products are some of the world’s most recognized. One such product is Tylenol. Tylenol is the most recognized form of acetaminophen and is used in more than 600 prescription and over-the-counter medications.

Tylenol has been a leading consumer product for J&J for decades. In the first three quarters of 1982, Tylenol made up 19% of J&J corporate profits. To put this into perspective, according to T. Berge’s book, The First 24 Hours, if Tylenol had been considered a corporation of its own, the profits generated would have placed Tylenol in the top half of Fortune 500 companies.

In September of 1982, a person or persons placed bottles of Tylenol Extra-Strength capsules that had been laced with cyanide onto shelves in several (at least six) retail locations in the Chicago suburbs. Unfortunately, boxes of the laced capsules were purchased by unknown consumers resulting in the death of seven individuals; one 12-year-old girl; a postal worker, his brother and sister-in-law; a mother of four; a phone center employee; and a flight attendant.

J&J discovered the news when contacted by a reporter for a comment. A hospital spokesperson had announced in a press conference that the deaths were all linked to Extra-Strength Tylenol; however, nobody had contacted J&J. Faced with uncertainty of how the capsules came to contain poison, J&J had to communicate to the public what they knew and what they were doing to find a solution.

Picture of brown bottle sitting on sign with skull and crossbones labeled POISON.

Image © Shutterstock.com

J&J put together a seven-member team to strategize on how to respond to the events. The team were given two tasks by chairman, James Burke, (1) “How do we protect the people? and (2) “How do we save this product?” The organization spent nearly $100M to complete these tasks. First, J&J did a recall of all Tylenol from store shelves nationwide. They informed the public, via the media, to stop using Tylenol until they could determine the cause. A toll-free hotline was established to take consumer calls. Facilities that produced Tylenol were all tested and thoroughly sanitized. Once determined that the cyanide-laced capsules did not come from the manufacturer, J&J established a $100,000 reward to anyone who could provide information that led to an arrest of the suspect(s). No one has ever been arrested.

By recalling all Tylenol nationwide, J&J put the public’s safety first. This made Tylenol appear the victim of a malicious crime (Broom, 1994). J&J used the free media frenzy as well as paid advertisements to show transparency in their process during the crisis. Chairman, Jim Burke, also appeared on nationally televised shows including 60 minutes. J&J announced their new triple safety sealed packaging, which is what you see today. The box is glued shut, plastic is sealed around the neck of the bottle and foil seals the inner mouth of the bottle. All of this happened within six months of the murders.

Picture of medication bottle with seal over the opening stating “SEALED for YOUR PROTECTION.”

Improved anti-tampering product packaging as a result of the Tylenol murders.Image © Shutterstock.com

In response, consumers flocked back to Tylenol. Some viewed Tylenol as a victim and felt the company went above and beyond what was called for to protect the public. This loyalty to the customer base drive brand loyalty higher. The result was that the team established by Chairman Burke achieved both goals. They were able make the public aware of a situation, defuse the situation, determine outside interference, and direct the public to new product safety to help ensure tampering did not occur. The team was also able to save the Tylenol brand and saw stocks rebound to even higher numbers within six months of the crisis.

REVIEW THE COMPONENTS OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Remember that business communication is not a linear process. It is circular.

Six components of effective communication: need, audience, message, source, feedback, and response.

· Purpose—What is the need that has required communication?

· Audience—Who is the organization attempting to communicate to regarding the purpose?

· Message—What is the message the organization needs to send?

· Message Delivery—Who is to send the message and how will the message be sent?

· Feedback—What do you anticipate as the feedback the organization will receive? What is the actual feedback?

· Response—How will the organization respond to the anticipated and actual feedback received from the audience?

REVIEW POTENTIAL BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

A man speaking to a woman. The letters are jumbled and the woman has question marks above her head.

How are you eliminating barriers to communication?Image © Shutterstock.com

1. Verbal Barriers—Consider the verbal barriers that will need to be addressed when sending the message. Limit the use of jargon, slang, acronyms, sarcasm, and be sure to build trust. Also, recognize language differences and address the audience in a language/manner that is familiar and can be clearly understood.

2. Nonverbal Barriers—Consider bias, emotion, and other noise that can prevent the audience from hearing the message clearly. Attempt to remove or significantly limit the potential nonverbal barriers.

ADDITIONAL REQUIRED RESOURCES

CNN Video about Tylenol Murders

The Mysterious Poisoned Pill Murders

How The Tylenol Murders Fundamentally Changed The Way We All Take Medicine

How the Tylenol murders of 1982 changed the way we consume medication

ADDITIONAL USEFUL, BUT NOT REQUIRED, RESOURCES

Podcasts

The Chicago Tylenol Murders

Unsolved Murders: True Crime Stories

Stranger Than podcast

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES AND INFORMATION

The Tylenol Murders: Is It Too Late to Solve the Famous Cold Case?

Chicago Tylenol Murders

REFERENCES

· Wharton, University of Pennsylvania. “Tylenol and the Legacy of J&J’s James Burke.” Knowledge @ Warton. 2 Oct. 2012. https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/tylenol-and-the-legacy-of-jjs-james burke/#:~:text=After%20the%20deaths%2C%20J%26J's%20market,later%20in%20tamper%2Dproof%20packaging.&text=%E2%80%9CThe%20credo%20is%20all%20about%20the%20consumer%2C%E2%80%9D%20Burke%20said.

· Pusey, Allen. “Sept. 29, 1982: 7 Deaths Point to Cyanide-Laced Pain Reliever.” ABAJournal. 1 Sep. 2017. https://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/chicago_tylenol_murders

· Drugwatch. Tylenol. https://www.drugwatch.com/tylenol/

· Caesar-Gordon, M.D., Andrew. “The Perfect Crisis Response?” PR Week. 28 Oct. 2015. https://www.prweek.com/article/1357203/perfect-crisis-response

· Markel, Howard. “How the Tylenol Murders of 1982 Changed the way we Consume Medication.” PBS News Hour. 29 Sep 2914. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/tylenol-murders-1982

· Berge, Dieudonnee Ten. The first 24-hours. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, Inc. (1990).

· Broom, Glen, Center, Allen, & Cutlip, Scott. Effective public relations (7th ed.). Prentice-Hall, Inc. (1994)

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