The 1 Thing Tylenol Should Do First to Fix Its Brand Image

In fall of 1982, seven people in Chicago died from poisoned Tylenol.

Its parent company was Johnson & Johnson. And J&J’s response—led by CEO James Burke—was swift: A total recall, suspension of production, and the rapid development of triple-safety seal packaging.

It’s widely considered one of the most effective crisis management cases in business history, and a model for others.

While everything was executed perfectly—ethically and conceptually—something that was established back in 1886  helped enormously.

The J&J brand itself.

A trusted company known for tending to generations of babies and families, is capable of rebuilding trust in ways that a new company cannot hope to achieve.

On the other hand, the corporate brand behind the product that is being linked to autism, which the president of the United States is warning women not to take, is named ….

Kenvue.

Does anyone think that a clumsy, manufactured corporate name is going to inspire trust and confidence in a time of turmoil and anxiety?

Parent companies matter in crisis

In the current Tylenol media firestorm, what hasn’t been appropriately noted is the extraordinary branding gulf between the 1982 and the 2025 crises.

For those not paying attention to the maneuverings of corporate nomenclature, let me explain how the deep and resonant J&J equity got moved from consumer products—to pharmacueticals and medical devices.

Back in 2021, J&J announced that it was going to split its consumer and medical business into two separately traded companies. They assigned the iconic consumer brand to the latter, which struck me as odd at the time, as the medical segment would have been a more logical candidate for a new name. Keeping the J&J brand for Tylenol, Band-Aids, and Listerine would have been stunningly logical.

So, how did they end up here?

Some believe that the reason for dropping J&J from the consumer side was to protect it from the massive ongoing litigation connecting talc and cancer. Others maintained that since the medical business was bigger, the company believed the powerful J&J name would generate more value in that sector.

In fact, in the “Our Story” section of the Kenvue website, J&J doesn’t even make an appearance. If you were introducing Kenvue into the world, wouldn’t you want to celebrate how it was born from one of the greatest and most revered companies in American life?

Of course you would. The expungement of J&J suggests lawyers wanted as much separation as possible, which is why the consumer brands shifted to Kenvue.

Whatever the reason it was an atrocious choice.

Learn from badness

J&J introduced the Kenvue brand as follows:

“Kenvue (pronounced ken·view), is inspired by two powerful ideas: “ken”—meaning knowledge, an English word primarily used in Scotland, and “vue,” referencing sight. With rich knowledge of human needs and deep consumer insights, Kenvue will deliver meaningful, personal health solutions.”

Oh my, such corporate babble, and when you’ve got to tell people how to pronounce a name, you know you’re in trouble.

The fundamental problem is that the name is cold. Unemotional. It evokes no memory trail, activating no neural substrates.

You’re not a billion-dollar company.

The J&J/Kenvue decision contains lessons for everyone from marketers to business leaders.  

In today’s volatile world, where negativity is the coin of the social realm, you need to recognize that profound reputational challenges to your business can emerge suddenly. They can be everything from attacks on the safety of your ingredients to a TikTok video posted by an unhappy customer that goes viral, to a competitor spreading misinformation online.

Each of these needs to be addressed with a crisis management plan, and in fact, you might need to have a proactive one in place now. Of course, there is a massive public relations industry built around this world of crisis comms. 

The point I want to make here is about the relationship between managing a crisis and the strength of the underlying brand—a point that is not widely enough discussed. The stronger the brand, the greater its reputational resiliency.  

When you have a corporate brand like J&J behind Tylenol, you have two layers of insulation. When you have Kenvue plus Tylenol, you have the Maginot Line.

Consumers research everything. When consumers search Google, and now the LLMs, to learn about a company, a rich history matters.

Starting from scratch

Anyone naming a company or brand should pay heed to the likes of Kenvue. Naming is an entire industry itself, and I’ve been involved in dozens of naming processes over the years.  

A thorough exploration will look at names that are descriptive—like Netflix, which isn’t imaginative but at least doesn’t need a pronunciation guide. Or Tesla, which opens the door to a backstory (like Warby Parker does).  Or Google, which humanized technology and, at least back then, made it feel warm and fuzzy. Or of course Apple, whose genius evocativeness captured the self-confident singularity of Steve Jobs.

All these directions can be effective, and of course, there is always a level of judgment and intuition. 

But a name like Kenvue, which means something only to the branding agency that sold it for umpteen dollars, won’t cut it. When you have the president standing at a podium bleating, “Don’t Take Tylenol,” you need to staunch the brand bleeding with something more effective than a Band-Aid.

Tylenol desperately needs to publicly realign itself with the J&J parent brand.