Tylenol

Tylenol

What Happened?

In October of 1982, Tylenol, the leading pain-killer in the United States at the time faced a crisis. Seven people in Chicago were reported dead after taking Tylenol. 12-year-old Mary Kellerdman of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, Adam Janus of Arlington Heights, Illinois, his brother Stanley Janus, and his wife Theresa Janus, Mary Reiner of Winfield, Paula Price, and Mary McFarland of Elmhurst Illinois was the last victim of the cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules. This happened bﴱᄃecause there was Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules that had been distributed and tampered with. The capsules contained 65 milligrams of cyanide. The amount necessary to kill a human is five to seven micrograms, which means that the person used 10,000 times more poison that what was needed.. The tampering had occurred when the products reached the shelves. The connection between the deaths and the Tylenol was discovered within days by two off-duty firemen who were listing to their police radios. Phillip Cappitelli and Richard Keyworth were the men to make the connection and tell there superiors.

What did Tylenol do?

Tylenol is part of the Johnson & Johnson Company. Once they made the connection between the report and the Tylenol they put customer safety first, before they worried about the company’s profit. The company immediately informed customers not to consume any type of Tylenol product. To throw away what they had until the extent of the tampering could be determined. Johnson and Johnson stopped all production and advertising. The recall included approximately 31 million bottles of Tylenol.

Tylenol’s credo is, “We believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses, and patients, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services. We are responsible for our employees, the men and women who work with us throughout the world. We are responsible to the communities in which we live and work and to the world community as well. Our final responsibility is to our stockholders.

How they recovered?

To recover from the crisis Tylenol did a number of things. The first, they knew that that needed to gain consumer confidence so when they re-introduced the product there was a triple-seal tamper-resistant seal. They become the first company to comply with the Food and Drug Administration tamper-resistant packaging. Second they needed to motivate customers to buy the product, so they offered a $2.50 coupon on their purchase. They were available in the newspapers as well as a free number to call.