Clearing The Air

Blinded by greed and marketing ambitions, the Johnson & Johnson Company sues the American Red Cross

This sounds to me like a PR nightmare for Johnson & Johnson. Suing the first response humanitarian organization (Red Cross) seems to be a petty, and sleazy course of action.

It would be analogous to the AMA or McDonalds suing Mother Theresa for helping the poor and starving.

But then I've demonstrated the sleazy methods that J & J and its partner the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) have used in the past to sell pharmaceutical nicotine products.

J & J / RWJF have demonstrated once again that morals and ethics will in no way interfere with their business plans.

Of course the other consideration to remember is that Johnson & Johnson recently announced a $10 billion corporate buyback of their stock, it's in their best interest to repurchase shares of stock at the lowest possible price. A PR debacle like suing the American Red Cross would go a long way to helping taint Johnson & Johnson's image and reduce share value.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 12:17 PM