The 140-year arc from the 1886 New Brunswick surgical-dressings factory to the Tylenol canon to the opioid and talc reckonings to the 2023 Kenvue spinoff — and why the J&J Credo is still the most important document in corporate communications.
Johnson & Johnson — the New Jersey healthcare conglomerate. Founded 1886. Completed Kenvue consumer spinoff August 2023. Refocused on Innovative Medicine + MedTech. Sustained talc litigation. CEO Joaquin Duato since 2022.
Johnson and Johnson: the brand that wrote the Tylenol crisis playbook, the company now operating under the Kenvue spinoff and the multi-decade talc liability case. The pharma-primary view.
Six modern PR crises diagnosed through Grunig and Hunt's four models — Tylenol, Pepsi/Kendall, MSL/Netflix, Qwikster, Bud Light, and Starbucks under Brian Niccol. The diagnostic vocabulary every crisis operator needs.
Six OTC PR campaigns that defined the category — Tylenol's 1982 recall, Mr. Mucus, Zyrtec's Allergy Face, Live Claritin Clear, Vicks' Touch of Care, and J&J's Family Company positioning.
Resilient brands are built before the crisis, not after. Domino's 2009 YouTube response. Tylenol's 1982 cyanide recall under James Burke. JetBlue's 2007 Valentine's Day stranding apology. Three canonical crisis-recovery PR case studies and the doctrines that survived.
