#10 – Crisis Communication Plans: A Worthwhile Headache

Player not working? Listen online here or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Crisis communication planning is usually not on the list of “favorite things to do.” Favorite thing or not, though, it’s vital for any brand to be prepared in a worst-case scenario. Take it from Tylenol: when seven otherwise healthy people dropped dead in 1982 after taking the analgesic for a standard ache, pain or cold, the brand was utterly unprepared.

Thankfully, due to the incredible response from the top down, Tylenol went from a household favorite to a mysterious killer then back to a brand of utmost trustworthiness in the span of about a year.

“We’re going to need to get a lawyer if this podcast takes off.”

-We have no filter-

Not only did the panic set off a complete overhaul of the over-the-counter drug industry, it showed brands across the world what can happen when a brand follows its moral code and set out to simply do the right thing. Profits and corporate bullshit aside, Tylenol cut the crap and did whatever it could to put its consumers (and for a brand this size, that means the general public) first. Some of the print ads they took out after the crisis below, courtesy of Film Daily:

No matter your industry, you should have some semblance of a crisis communication plan in place. If you’re teetering on the edge of “worth it” or not, consider this: do you think Tylenol could have predicted a murderous psycho tampering with their product in a Chicago drugstore? 🙂

Hive & Honey Riesling

Sources:

• https://www.prweek.com/article/1357203/perfect-crisis-response
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders
• https://www.communiquepr.com/the-tylenol-murders-a-case-study/9950/
• https://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/02C2/Johnson%20&%20Johnson.htm
• https://filmdaily.co/news/tylenol-murders/