The "Tylenol case" was a "sniper-fire crsis" - aka, a crisis caused by an outside force, like a psychotic killer. In this case no one's going to root for the serial killer regardless of how much the company may be at fault. Also, J&J has a long history of manufacturing popular products and has a good reputation with the general populace. These are the major factors that allowed J&J to handle the situation in the way that it did.

Conversely, if a client is in tabacco, genetics or weapons manufacturing then the tactics adopted by J&J will be completely useless to them. Saying that the "Tylenol case" is a golden standard is missing the big picture.

For anyone out there interested in crisis PR I highly recommend "Damage Control": http://www.amazon.com/Damage-Control-Revised-Updated-Managem...