The Tylenol case represents perhaps the worst sort of dilemma a company can face. Through no fault of its own, Johnson & Johnson was faced with the destruction of one of its most important brand names. An unknown assailant used the product to murder a number of people at random, and the story was one of the most widely covered events in media history. Within the first week it is estimated that more than 90 percent of the American public were aware of what had happened (Wall Street Journal, October 4, 1982). This situation left the product in a very bad position - no one wanted to use Tylenol in case there had been some tampering with the product. Johnson & Johnson had done nothing to betray the public's trust in the company, or its products; yet that trust, a great deal of revenue, and a large market share segment were gone (Fortune, Nov. 29, 1982). One horrible event and the excessive media coverage that followed, put Johnson & Johnson in a position where it needed to salvage its image and revenues even though the company had done nothing wrong.
Americans were bombarded with information about the Tylenol incident. One news service said "the Tylenol story had resulted in the widest domestic coverage of any story since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy" (Goadner, 1982, p. 71). The volume of information pertaining to the cyanide-induced deaths was incredible. The fact that the story received so much attention probably saved the lives of people who would have otherwise unwittingly taken cyanide-laced Tylenol and died.
However, it also created something of a panic; "poison control centers as far away as San Francisco an New Orleans were flooded with calls from frightened citizens" (Wall Street Journal, October 4, 1982, p. 16). These were the poor souls who did not realize that if they were able to make a phone call, it was highly unlikely that they were suffering from cyanide poisoning. There were also more t...