Mark Ritson is a former advertising and marketing professor, model marketing consultant and an award-winning columnist. He’s additionally the founding father of the MiniMBA in Advertising, a ten-week coaching program for senior managers who missed or have forgotten their advertising and marketing 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 consultants and international well being authorities have roundly rejected the declare, insisting that acetaminophen—the generic identify for Tylenol—stays a protected and important remedy 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 virtually 10% after Monday’s announcement.
It’s been frequent lately to quote all publicity as one way or the other good for model constructing and gross sales. “Hey,” goes the inane argument, “at the least persons are speaking about us, proper?”
However whereas it’s actually true that entrepreneurs have usually overstated the perils of damaging media protection and the odd inconsistent second, there is no such thing as a doubt that sure crises can certainly harm model fairness and severely harm gross sales. Monday’s occasions are proper up there on the ache index.
Certainly, it’s onerous to conceive of an even bigger or extra probably damaging second. The criticism comes from essentially the most highly effective particular person within the nation. One who instructions international headlines every 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, targeted on the Tylenol model as an alternative and identify checked it eight occasions. After which there’s the direct contradiction of a model constructed on protected, trusted ache aid all of a sudden declared a harmful, dangerous reason for one in all America’s most mysterious circumstances.
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 shopper confidence. Johnson & Johnson, then Tylenol’s mum or dad, undertook what’s now thought to be the textbook response: pulling 31 million bottles off cabinets, halting all promoting, participating the media with candor, and introducing tamper-proof packaging.
It grew to become the traditional playbook for contemporary disaster administration—swift motion, radical transparency, and shopper security prioritized over value. Inside a yr, Tylenol’s market share recovered utterly, and the corporate’s status soared as an exemplar of company ethics. The corporate constructed the model from its response to the disaster.
We are able to 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 performed at breakneck pace, overly-focused on motion and response. That’s not at all times sensible. In spite of everything, technique, in response to Michael Porter, is the artwork of deciding what to not do.
Once you break down case research instructing MBA college students, it’s crucial to complement all the scholars’ frenzied ideas with a ultimate oft-forgotten choice of doing nothing. That is nonetheless a strategic selection. And sometimes the sensible one.
Contemplate 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 will not be in possession of recent data; all earlier research have been reviewed advert nauseam by regulators worldwide.
The medical institution, educational neighborhood, and worldwide well being businesses have already spoken in unison to debunk the assertion. A contemporary assertion from Tylenol would possible solely refresh and legitimize a baseless information cycle.
If Tylenol performs together with the President, it may create a stigma within the thoughts of American customers for a lifetime. Resisting the claims with knowledge dangers infuriating a president who, because of his mentor Roy Cohn, rewards resistance with a ten-fold escalation.
Historical past teaches entrepreneurs that fashionable crises usually are not at all times finest managed with instant motion, regardless of the generic recommendation of disaster administration gurus who play each disaster the identical method.
Generally, letting the consultants—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 shock expend itself, Tylenol stands to remind customers of the uninteresting energy of experience, not panic.
Generally, silence will not be weak point 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.
