TylenolWhat happened?In October 1982, Tylenol, then the leading painkiller in the United States, faced a crisis. Seven people in Chicago were reported dead after taking Tylenol. Twelve-year-old Mary Kellerdman of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, Adam Janus of Arlington Heights, Illinois, his brother Stanley Janus and his wife Theresa Janus, Mary Reiner of Winfield, Paula Price and Mary McFarland of Elmhurst Illinois were the latest victims of the capsules Tylenol laced with cyanide. This happened because there were extra-strength Tylenol capsules that had been distributed and tampered with. The capsules contained 65 milligrams of cyanide. The amount needed to kill a human is between 5 and 7 micrograms, meaning the person used 10,000 times more poison than was necessary. The tampering occurred when the products reached the shelves. The connection between the deaths and Tylenol was discovered within days by two off-duty firefighters who were listening to police radios. Phillip Cappitelli and Richard Keyworth were the men to make the connection and tell superiors. What did Tylenol do? Tylenol is part of the Johnson & Johnson Company. Once they made the connection between the report and Tylenol, they put customer safety first before worrying about the company's profit. The company immediately informed customers not to consume any type of Tylenol product. Throw away what they had until the extent of the tampering was determined. Johnson and Johnson stopped all production and advertising. The recall included approximately 31 million bottles of Tylenol. Tylenol's credo is: “We believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and patients, mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services. We are responsible for our employees, the men and women who work with us around the world. We are responsible to the communities in which we live and work and also to the global community. Our final responsibility is to our shareholders. How did they recover? To recover from the crisis, Tylenol did a number of things. First, they knew they needed to gain consumer trust, so when they reintroduced the product there was a triple-seal tamper-evident seal. They become the first company to comply with the Food and Drug Administration's tamper-evident packaging. Second, they needed to motivate customers to purchase the product, so they offered a $2.50 coupon on their purchase. They were available in the newspapers and there was also a toll-free number to call.