Tylenol Tragedy

Read the attached excerpt from “Lessons Learned from the Tylenol Tragedy,” and argue—in one concise, direct, assertive paragraph—your response to the following question: Which single PR strategy was most powerful in Johnson & Johnson’s reputation repair, and why? To support your argument, use specific details from the provided text and your own logic and knowledge.

Sample response, with color-coding to emphasize analysis:

Factual evidence support (from the reading)

Interpretive analysis support

The most powerful PR strategy that Johnson & Johnson used to repair its reputation was strategically coordinating with the medical community because the people within this community could become “force multipliers” advocating for the company.  For example, according to “Lessons learned from the Tylenol tragedy on surviving a corporate crisis,” J&J “made intensive efforts to communicate with physicians through all media” to encourage these physicians to reassure their patients of Tylenol’s safety.  The article specifically mentions that J&J sent 450,000 electronic messages to people in medical and pharmaceutical industries and dispersed more than 2,000 sales reps to make in-person presentations to doctors and health-care workers.  By coordinating with the medical community in these ways, J&J gained what Leslie Gaines-Ross calls “force multipliers”: “a network of independent third parties willing to take your side.”  In this case, J&J recognized that the support of the medical community would have reinforced the power of the company’s message, thatTylenol is safe, by channeling that message through trusted, authoritative, and seemingly unbiased sources: doctors and other health-care professionals.  Had J&J not involved medical community representatives as third-party advocates in these ways, taking advantage of their positions of influence to endorse Tylenol, consumers may have remained more skeptical ofTylenol’s safety and taken more time to trust the product again.