Johnson & Johnson: Recalls Do Not Help

What’s going on with Johnson & Johnson? The other day I found out another J&J product, Rolaids, is being recalled. The first thought in my head was “Again?”. According Parija Kavilanz of cnnmoney.com, “13 million packages of various Rolaid medicines following consumer complaints of foreign materials, including metal and wood particles” were recalled. The response from J&J McNeil division is that it's a third party issue. Days before the recall, Kavilanz wrote another article stating the FDA warned J&J to get their act together and still found more violations.

At this point, I do not care if it is Johnson & Johnson or their third party affiliates who are feeding the problem. The heart of the matter is Johnson & Johnson is the face of the problem and therefore, this is their problem. Considering the power and established brand of the company, J&J needs to do a better job to control their recall situation. It seems the FDA, congressional hearings, and consistent bad press is not enough for the company to act better. Stating the problem as due to a third party sounds like an excuse. It could be true but unfortunately, the string of recalls has now rebranded J&J an untrustworthy company. 

I could assume that the CEO and other J&J executives are very concerned and going crazy over the ways to fix the problem. But there is something going on within the company culture where the company is failing to get “it” as a whole. They are failing to understand that this string of recalls is bad for them. For one, a recall means no products on the shelf. I used to only take Tylenol cold medicine but one day went to Walgreens and found the product recalled. Since then, I don’t trust Tylenol. This leads to the second point; the product is viewed as unreliable. I’m pretty sure not all Tylenol is bad but I pay for the product, which is absorbed into my body. Therefore, for my health and my pockets, I can’t take chances of consuming a bad product. I may seem very skeptical but I’m pretty sure millions of others feel the same way. Third, the amount of damage done is the amount or more it will take to bounce back. Johnson & Johnson is a pretty well established brand. This put the company on a pedestal and consumers do not expect the company to have problems. I understand that stuff happens but to continually have the same problem is bad for any company. Therefore, the company needs to fix the problem and then work on fixing damage done to their brand.

I really do hope the company does better. It has been around for too long to let these recalls hurt a well-built brand.

Note: By now, you should realize I tend to name the writers of my main sources within the post. It may seem unnecessary but I do it out of respect