Customer Reviews

The Tylenol Mafia: Marketing, Murder, and Johnson & Johnson

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I've been a lifelong journalist including ten years at the former New York Journal-American and Chicago Tribune and The Tylenol Mafia by Scott Bartz is one of the best pieces of journalism I have ever seen. All students of PR and journalism should read it.
It has thousands of well-documented details by Bartz and excellent logic applied to these details.
I've covered the PR industry since 1968 in our newsletter, magazine and website and have always found the Tylenol story to be a masterpiece of spin although media have swallowed it as the "Gold Standard" for crisis handling.
PR Society of America as well as major media such as the New York Times, Economist, Fortune and Christian Science Monitor must revisit the Tylenol murders and revise their glowing opinions of how J&J behaved.
Bartz offers convincing proof that the issue was not some madman putting poisoned Tylenol bottles back on shelves but the contamination taking place in the distribution chain from J&J through rack jobbers and others who did the actual packaging and delivery to stores.
The "smoking gun" is the death of Lynn Reiner, who had given birth to a son four days earlier in 1982, and who died after taking poisoned Extra Strength Tylenols given to her by the hospital. No "madman" broke into the hospital's pharmacy to spike those capsules. They came from within J&J's distribution chain.
Bartz notes that the odds of families purchasing the exact five bottles of Tylenols that were poisoned over a 300-square mile radius where there were hundreds of stories is a fraction of one percent. Obviously there were hundreds of other poisoned bottles. Many of them were destroyed or turned over to J&J--a bizarre example of entrusting a suspect with the evidence. This turns normal police practice on its head.

This is an astonishing revelation of how a giant corporation worked closely with the FBI, FDA, local police and the Legal Profession to obstruct justice. I recommend that all those folks involved in the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations read this book. It will add fuel to their fire. The primary complaint of "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrators is focused on the behavior of the Financial Community but their outrage should extend to giant corporations and government officials who think they are above the law.

This book is disturbing on so many levels. The story would be unbelievable if it were not so meticulously researched and documented. The facts that Scott Bartz sets forth in this book are irrefutable and could have only been uncovered by someone with inside knowledge about how the pharmaceutical industry and Johnson & Johnson works. I commend him for his courage in challenging some very powerful and scary people.

This is such an interesting and horrifyingly revealing read. Having grown up in one of the towns where this heartbreaking tragedy hit, this subject has always been of particular interest to me. It amazes me how much of this case was ignored, mishandled, and covered up. This was a very scary time for so many, and it makes me very angry to realize how the public and the victims were lied to and continue to be lied to about this incident. This book has made me feel extremely gullible for having believed the media and the authorities all these years about what really happened. My hope is that the release of this book opens some eyes. It is well researched and well written, and I would recommend it to anyone. Truly, this is a conspiracy of mega proporation, and it has been cracked wide open with this book.

The legend of J&J's supposedly brilliant crisis management of the 1982 Tylenol tampering has been the keystone of the PR industry's marketing puffery for nearly 30 years. According to the legend - and that's all it is, a fabricated corporate legend - J&J "immediately" pulled Tylenol capsules off the shelves and were "transparent" with the media. Scott Bartz's new book, The Tylenol Mafia, finally blows up these fabrications with a devastating analysis of the 1982 tragedies that killed 7 people. J&J didn't really "pull" the capsules until retailers like Walgreens and CVS began frantically pulling Tylenol off the shelves. As for transparency, Bartz demonstrates that J&J fed the media inaccurate information, a little tidbit that had been lost on the business media's relentless puffing up of this corporate catastrophe. Especially disturbing is the distinct possibility that the source of the cyanide was not an external madman, but a warehouse within the J&J distribution channel. Oh, that.

Why then has the Tylenol legend taken root in the business school culture. For one thing, because it had a happy ending for J&J in terms of sales recovery, it allows all kinds of pundits to take credit for engineering this turnout. PR behemoth Burson Marsteller, which, in fact had very little to do with the actual crisis management, came on board LATER to merchandize the case study's brilliance thereby creating a strong marketing device for themselves. It also allows the contemporary news media a brickbat with which to smash other companies they perceive as being negligent. "See, look what Tylenol did. Why can't you get it right?"

While Bartz's book serves as a riveting whodunit, the murder mystery component of the Tylenol case can and will be legitimately debated. What cannot be debated is that the Tylenol case - praised by no less than Harvard Business School - should never have made it to the Pantheon of crisis management. The most ingenious thing about the Tylenol case isn't its crisis management wizardry, but its merchandizing as crisis management wizardry. We see the residue of Tylenol in much of today's vapid proselytizing of "corporate social responsibility," which begs the question: Is the objective of corporate social responsibility to do the right thing or make the business casual set feel better about themselves by bathing in the warm bathwater of transparency, sustainability and good corporate citizenship.

If you're into self-serving corporate autobiography, you'll love the Tylenol tall tale. If you're a skeptic, pick up The Tylenol Mafia.

Started reading this book and have been opened up to a whole new perspective on the Tylenol murders. This book is actually shocking to read and I can't believe some of the details that this author brings up that the authorities have somehow managed to overlook and/or not even acknowledge in this case. This is a must read and I hope the book sheds some new light on the investigation in to this case.

Johnson & Johnson wants you to believe that a "madman" went from store to store, randomly placing cyanide laced Tylenol back on store shelves. However, a close look at the evidence shows that the tamperings actually occurred within J&J's distribution channels. A brilliant piece of investigative journalism that should shock and enrage us all. Highly recommended.

How in the world are the authorities and Johnson & Johnson getting away with this? I could not stop reading the book when I first opened it. All of these details and stories I had no idea were even a part of this case. I always thought we would find out who this guy was when he was on his death bed, finally ready to confess to it. But, a worker in a warehouse in the distribution channel? Yes, it completely makes sense now! Once the author introduced the scenario that way, it all started adding up--- like, the "route of the madman" that the FBI offered the media to plaster all over the news. The route was this perfect circle of retail stores the Tylenol killer supposedly went to. Bartz took that info and translated it to a now-obvious theory-- a delivery route from the distributor! Bartz mapped it all out so clearly. The other thought-provoking fact that I thought was amazing was the reward offered was only $100,000, but J&J spent hundreds of millions in marketing to save their product. Why would you offer so little if you wanted to get information from the public so badly? Well, offering $1,000,000 or more would entice people to really dig deep into the facts to solve the case. Then, they would owe the victim's families way more than $1M. I give huge kudos to Scott Bartz for doing something that no one else that I know of has done with this case--- question the reason why this case has not yet been solved and research everything. His detail is beyond impressive. I hope that someone with the badge of authority reads this and goes against the grain to finally solve this for these families... and the consumer.

"It reads like a murder mystery. But the reality is that Scott Bartz's new book, The Tylenol Mafia, attempts to reveal, the author claims, a corporate cover-up involving a reluctrant recall, fears aboout liability, and the truth about a "madman on the loose theory" that shaped the case we know today. It's a case that has yet to be classified as closed." - WGN-TV, Chicago

"The Tylenol Mafia author, Scott Bartz, says he knows why these crimes [the 1982 and 1986 Tylenol murders] continue to confound investigators... Bartz is a stickler for details. In the book Tylenol lot numbers, warehouses, repackaging facilities, distribution channels, and manufacturing processes get traced and tracked. Bartz pays close attention to the exact terminology used by J&J, the FDA, and the FBI. Inconsistencies of statements are noted; what is said--and not said--is important. He also describes the personal and professional allegiances between key players. And he reveals allegations about the current reactivation team that--if even partially true--call the entire endeavor into question." - Joy Bergmann, The Chicago Reader

THE TYLENOL MAFIA: Marketing, Murder, and Johnson & JohnsonThe Tylenol Mafia: Marketing, Murder, and Johnson & Johnson

Tylenol Mafia is a fascinating true story of a murder investigation, with credible evidence to support the author's contention of a Corporate and Government cover-up. It contains well documented detail and intriguing connections between powerful men in Business, Government and the Legal Systems, and explains how they manipulated "justice". Scott Bartz authored a brilliant piece of investigative jounalism, that reveals shocking details of what really happened when these tragic Tylenol murders were investigated. What happened to Business ethics, Justice under the law, and Government for the people? There are still people who can come forward to correct this travesty. Will they? This book is an eye opener and a must read.