Following Johnson & Johnson's voluntary recall of popular medicines such as Tylenol, Benadryl and Zyrtec, Natasha Singer writes that many parents were questioning whether being a brand-name
drug is really synonymous with quality. "Another recall for baby Tylenol!" tweeted Kevin Kowalski, a representative father in Illinois, yesterday. "Well, then no more baby Tylenol, back
to generic brand."
Besides social media, Singer reports that the topic was also a flashpoint on playgrounds and at birthday parties over the weekend, with some people complaining
that they had difficulty obtaining information from the company. McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, has tried to address most consumer questions in a FAQ section on its
site, a company spokesman says, but he acknowledged that some consumers were frustrated. McNeil is adding information to
the site and increasing staffing on an 800 hotline, he says.
"They are going to have to go to greater lengths," says Michael Braun, an assistant professor of marketing at
the M.I.T Sloan School of Management. "The greater the harm to the reputation, the more expensive it is to fix it."
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