Remember the Good Ol’ Days? When Companies Like Tylenol Pulled Their Products IMMEDIATELY?

Nowadays, you keep your product on the shelves for as long as possible (and maybe even throw in a discount, thus preventing a potential refund/return).   I’ve worked for a number of companies that did this all the time.  They kept up an appearance of feigned innocence and ignorance, swearing they didn’t know that there was a reoccurring problem.  One place I knew of even re-sold the rejected products at a steep discount, regardless of the number of times it had been returned.

In the good old days – back in the 60′s and 70′s – drug companies and such were so concerned about bad press about their products (like the Bayer and Tylenol scares over poisonings and tamperings), that they would immediately pull items off the shelves to prevent any kind of accidental death or injury from their product.  Sales would literally plummet the moment anyone worried about an irresponsible manufacturer’s product on the market.  But now, people seem to shrug it off, because the media tends to blow things out of proportion too often – thus numbing your senses into oblivion.

In the movie, The Insider, Russell Crowe, who plays a whistle blower for a cigarette company, expresses his disgust at how his bosses actually manufacture addictive poisons to be put into cigarettes. He then goes on to express how impressed he was with his former employer’s immediate response to news reports of deaths from tainted aspirin tablets, back in the 70′s. Back then, some companies actually went out of their way to make sure their products were 100% safe for consumption. Now, you’re lucky if they even tell you what’s in it.

Sigh…