Revolutions in Communication: Media History from Gutenberg to the Digital Age by Bill Kovarik

Author:Bill Kovarik [Kovarik, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Media History from Gutenberg to the Digital Age
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2015-11-19T05:00:00+00:00

Figure 6.19 Marlboro Man—This image was crafted in 1954 to embody the rugged American spirit and sell filtered cigarettes to men. The Marlboro Man was considered the top advertising campaign of the twentieth century. Hartman Center, Duke University.

Several controversies from the era showed how varied the approaches could be. In the 1970s, public health officials in developing countries noticed a disturbing trend. Infant mortality rates were rising as mothers switched from natural breast feeding to infant formula. A major factor in the switch included advertising techniques designed to convince mothers from Aruba to Zimbabwe that infant formula was cleaner and safer. In Europe and the United States, these tactics might not have been entirely honest, but they were at least not damaging. In the developing world, switching to infant formula was like “signing the death certificate of a child,” according to a United Nations health committee. That was because mothers in poorer regions lacked clean water to mix with formula powder, and often couldn’t afford to keep buying baby formula (Time, 1976).

In 1974, Nestlé sued the publishers of a twelve-page pamphlet entitled The Baby Killer for libel. After a two-year trial in Switzerland, Nestlé won a settlement of 300 Swiss francs. The paltry award upheld Nestlé’s view that it hadn’t directly broken Swiss law, but emphasized that, in the eyes of the court, Nestlé had acted unethically. An international boycott of Nestlé products was launched in response. At one point the Episcopal Church even contacted the mother of a Nestlé executive to encourage a change in behavior—without success. In 1984, Nestlé agreed to abide by an international health code, but the boycott was reinstated in 1988 after an investigation showed continued patterns of violations. In 1999, Nestlé insisted in a public relations campaign that it was acting ethically and responsibly, but a British Advertising Standards Authority found that the contention was not supported (Ferriman, 1999). As this book went to press in 2015, the boycott was still in effect (Babymilkaction.org/nestlefree).

In contrast, a 1982 crisis involving Tylenol poisoning showed how a major business ought to handle a disaster. The crisis began when seven people died after taking Tylenol pain reliever due to malicious tampering with Tylenol packages. Although the company was not at fault, Tylenol maker Johnson & Johnson issued an immediate recall for all of its products, refunded all consumers, staffed phone banks, and announced it would develop tamper-proof packaging (Rehak 2002).

Often a company’s reaction would do more harm to its reputation than the original incident. The 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor was one such event. During the ongoing disaster, neither the utility nor the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had a way to get information from people who had it (in the control room and at the site) to the public and the press, with enormous confusion resulting (President’s Commission 1979). The public was not informed about the accident itself until hours after it took place, nor was it informed of gas or water releases containing high levels of radiation (Washington Post, 1999).

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