Mark Ritson is a former advertising professor, model guide and an award-winning columnist. He’s additionally the founding father of the MiniMBA in Advertising and marketing, a ten-week coaching program for senior managers who missed or have forgotten their advertising fundamentals. Enroll right here.
President Trump has simply given Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, an almighty headache. Citing an unsubstantiated hyperlink to autism, the President made international headlines Monday by discouraging pregnant girls from utilizing the drug. Describing the scenario as a “horrible, horrible disaster” and Tylenol as “not good,” Trump outlined plans to restrict the drug’s future indications.
Medical specialists and international well being authorities have roundly rejected the declare, insisting that acetaminophen—the generic title for Tylenol—stays a protected and important therapy for pregnant girls.
However the fallout noticed Kenvue, which additionally manufactures different staples like BAND-AID and Listerine, scrambling to reply as its share worth dropped by nearly 10% after Monday’s announcement.
It’s been frequent lately to quote all publicity as someway good for model constructing and gross sales. “Hey,” goes the inane argument, “no less than individuals are speaking about us, proper?”
However whereas it’s actually true that entrepreneurs have usually overstated the perils of destructive media protection and the odd inconsistent second, there is no such thing as a doubt that sure crises can certainly harm model fairness and critically harm gross sales. Monday’s occasions are proper up there on the ache index.
Certainly, it’s arduous to conceive of a much bigger or extra doubtlessly damaging second. The criticism comes from probably the most highly effective individual within the nation. One who instructions international headlines each time he speaks and who resorts to excessive positions when he does.
The criticism can also be peculiarly focused on the model, not the class. President Trump, who struggled to pronounce acetaminophen on Monday, centered on the Tylenol model as an alternative and title checked it eight instances. After which there’s the direct contradiction of a model constructed on protected, trusted ache aid out of the blue declared a harmful, dangerous explanation for one among America’s most mysterious situations.
Remarkably, this isn’t Tylenol’s first existential disaster. In 1982, seven Chicagoans died after taking cyanide-laced Tylenol, triggering mass panic and a near-total collapse in client confidence. Johnson & Johnson, then Tylenol’s mum or dad, undertook what’s now considered the textbook response: pulling 31 million bottles off cabinets, halting all promoting, partaking the media with candor, and introducing tamper-proof packaging.
It turned the basic playbook for contemporary disaster administration—swift motion, radical transparency, and client security prioritized over value. Inside a 12 months, Tylenol’s market share recovered fully, and the corporate’s repute soared as an exemplar of company ethics. The corporate constructed the model from its response to the disaster.
We will now anticipate a panic of disaster managers (sure, that’s the official time period) quoting the occasions of 1982 and recommending that Tylenol as soon as once more take motion instantly to acknowledge the issue and both counter or adjust to the President’s claims.
However 2025 isn’t 1982. And medical misinformation from a politically motivated president isn’t the identical as product tampering and buyer fatalities.
Too usually, model technique is carried out at breakneck velocity, overly-focused on motion and response. That’s not at all times sensible. In spite of everything, technique, in line with Michael Porter, is the artwork of deciding what to not do.
While you break down case research instructing MBA college students, it’s crucial to complement all the scholars’ frenzied strategies with a remaining oft-forgotten choice of doing nothing. That is nonetheless a strategic alternative. And infrequently the sensible one.
Think about some great benefits of inertia. Trump’s declare is so at odds with the scientific consensus, and so clearly political, that any direct engagement dangers inadvertently elevating the controversy.
Tylenol just isn’t in possession of latest info; all earlier research have been reviewed advert nauseam by regulators worldwide.
The medical institution, tutorial neighborhood, and worldwide well being businesses have already spoken in unison to debunk the assertion. A recent assertion from Tylenol would seemingly solely refresh and legitimize a baseless information cycle.
If Tylenol performs together with the President, it might create a stigma within the thoughts of American shoppers for a lifetime. Resisting the claims with information dangers infuriating a president who, because of his mentor Roy Cohn, rewards resistance with a ten-fold escalation.
Historical past teaches entrepreneurs that trendy crises usually are not at all times greatest managed with quick motion, no matter the generic recommendation of disaster administration gurus who play each disaster the identical approach.
Typically, letting the specialists—and time—do the work is more practical, particularly when a model’s security report is long-established and the accusation at hand is patently unscientific. By holding the road and letting the flurry of concern expend itself, Tylenol stands to remind shoppers of the boring energy of experience, not panic.
Typically, silence just isn’t weak spot however knowledge. And inaction doesn’t at all times signify laziness or uncertainty. In an ironic twist: the bravest, wisest course for Tylenol could be to endure the ache in silence.
