Johnson & Johnson: Social media and an organization’s response to scandal
Open Access
Author:
Johnson, Sharnakae
Area of Honors:
Management
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Jennifer Lynn Eury, Thesis Supervisor Forrest Briscoe, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Johnson and Johnson scandal social media Tylenol case talcum powder case
Abstract:
This research aims to explore the role social media played in Johnson and Johnson’s (J&J) response to the talcum powder scandal. To understand the role social media played in J&J’s response, the Tylenol case in 1982, which occurred before the rise of social media was analyzed. The research conducted on the Tylenol case highlights the crucial details of what went wrong with the product, how the company responded, the media attention the case received, and how the consumers responded to the news. The same criteria was used when analyzing the talcum powder case with the new addition of social media as a media component. A collection of tweets from Twitter to illustrate how consumers reacted to the scandal. The study showed J&J’s decision to stop the sale of their talc-based baby powder product was heavily influenced by the outrage on the social media platform, Twitter.
