Johnson and Johnson and Tylenol

In March of 1989, the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker, ran aground on Bligh Reef, dumping 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska, resulting in the worst oil spill in United States history (Rogers, 519). The incident happened seven weeks before its annual shareholders' meeting, turning the meeting into a major media event. The consensus among public relations experts is that nearly every decision the company made in response the event was wrong (Yagoda 48-51). The Exxon Valdez incident is now held up to public relations students as the prime example of what not to do when such a disaster occurs.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll taken in April that year showed that 77 percent of the public thought Exxon could have done more to c

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d to the public, and by 1982, it had an astounding 36 percent share of the analgesic market. Tylenol contributed an estimated 7% of Johnson and Johnson's worldwide sales and 15 percent to 20 percent of its profits in 1981. Before the poisonings occurred, executives were confident that Tylenol would take over 50 percent of the market by 1986. Johnson and Johnson's stock had risen from the low 20s to 46 and 1/8 the night before the poisonings. Within a few days of the tragedy, it dropped seven points and then stabilized in the low 40s (Moore, 45). The sales of Tylenol products initially dropped 80 percent (Moore, 48). Tylenol's rise in the analgesic market was one of the headiest success stories in ten years, because acetaminophen, Tylenol's only active ingredient, is a compound any drug company can make. In 1982, with the damage to its name and 35 percent to 40 percent of the total Tylenol line removed from retailers' shelves, Johnson and Johnson executives had to work quickly to achieve the Tylenol comeback (Moore, 45). Another challenge Johnson and Johnson had to face after the Tylenol poisonings was increased competition in the aspirin-free analgesic market. Dun's Business Month (26) reported that, within a few we
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 5479
Approximate Pages = 22 (250 words per page)

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