Case Study: Tylenol Rides it Out and Gains a Legacy.

In October of 1982, Tylenol, the leading painkiller medicine in the United States at the time, faced a tremendous crisis when seven people in Chicago were reported dead after taking extra-strength Tylenol capsules. It was reported that an unknown suspect/s put 65 milligrams of deadly cyanide into Tylenol capsules, 10,000 more than what is necessary to kill a human. The tampering occurred once the product reached the shelves. They were removed from the shelves, infected with cyanide …

…the media could have easily destroyed Tylenol's reputation permanently. By creating a public relations program that both protected the public interest and was given full support by media institutions in the US, Johnson & Johnson was able to recover quickly and painlessly from possibly the greatest crisis ever to hit the pharmaceutical industry. Reference: Public Relations Practices: Managerial Case Studies and Problems A. Center & P. Jackson Prentice Hall, 2003 Upper Saddle River, NJ