Brand Wars: Who’s Right? Who Cares?
Wow, lots of good discussion here and around the Web re J&J versus American Red Cross. (Here’s my original post and the comments)
One excellent post comes from Chris Brown, Red Cross PR: How They Are Right, Even When They Might Be Wrong, which is the best analysis I’ve seen thus far of the whole pushin’ and shovin’ match. Here’s how Chris sums it up: “How do you measure ill-will? Bad headlines plus column inches times circulation? Seconds of airtime times viewship? Survey’s of the public about who’s right? Does the public even care?”
My guess - most people (if they even notice) don’t care about the legal details. They see a huge company suing The Red Cross over money and that’s it. Rather like a messy divorce. One or the other party may have an excellent case, be completely “in the right”, both legally and morally - but all the kids see is Daddy attacking Mommy…and everyone else sees two supposed grown-ups rolling around in the mud for lucre. Hurts and diminishes all involved.
P.S. Above is from the J&J web site - where the only red cross I could find was in a couple of images on the Our History page. Seems to me if the cross was so integral to their financial well-being, it’d be all over the place. I suspect some people got into a tussling match, possibly over something completely unrelated, and let their emotions override their intelligence. Happens all the time, even (especially) in business.
If you’d like to leave a comment, please do so. It may take a bit to show up since I hate making people type in little letters (I can’t read most of them myself) - so I moderate all comments. Feel free to disagree - debate is healthy. However, I’ve blacklisted the worst obscenities, including the “f” word, as part of the troll wall.
Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, branding, branding, Johnson & Johnson, The Red Cross
View the Blog Roll
August 14th, 2007 at 3:23 am
Mary:
Last night in “action alley” of Walmart (that’s what they call their 2 main aisles) there was an endcap of J&J first aid kits with a HUGE red cross. I posted a picture at my blog this morning. http://brandandmarket.blogspot.com This was the first time I can really remember seeing J&J use the red cross is such a BIG way. Perhaps it’s the strategic moves of the new president. Maybe I’m just more aware of it now.
Chris Brown
August 15th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Again surprised that you haven’t come across the story as told by JNJ BTW blog here: http://jnjbtw.com/?p=96 and here: http://www.kilmerhouse.com/?p=192
Also surprised that you deleted my comment from yesterday pointing to the links above…
August 15th, 2007 at 7:31 am
Thanks for the links. The reason your previous comment was deleted was that it read and looked like spam. Here’s a quick tip: Say where/what a link takes you to.
Always happy to have more information.
August 16th, 2007 at 6:06 am
The key consideration here is the legal requirement that you defend trademark rights or lose them. The Red Cross does not have the right to license the red cross for commercial ventures either for itself or others benefit. And if Johnson and Johnson does not bother to defend itself against actions by party A then it loses its right to defend itself against actions by parties B, C, or D. So it must defend against this unauthorized use.
I think the confusion most of us have had about J&J’s use of the cross is that we have generally thought that the Red Cross had authorized them to use it (much like the action the Red Cross has taken with these new manufacturers) when it actuality it was the other way around. And I suspect that someone within the Red Cross organization who was not really aware of the history of the cross is responsible for this particular faux paus. It is unfortunate that it has gone this far but J&J isreally without any viable alternative here.
August 16th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
As I and others have noted - you can be right legally and still be doing the wrong thing for your business. I have to think this could have been handled behind the scenes. It would also be an easier play for J&J if the actual emblem wasn’t so generic and if they hadn’t taken such a punitive approach to the matter.
Further, based on comments here and posts elsewhere - the use of the cross by the International Red Cross appears to predate the use of it by J&J. Good comments about this on my original post, giving the history.
Regardless of perspective, J&J and TRN are well and truly down a rat hole on this one. Think of the time, money, and PR efforts wasted that could have been much better spent in other endeavors - like actually helping people.
August 17th, 2007 at 8:03 am
[…] Then there was the little “legal problem” between J&J and The American Red Cross. […]
August 18th, 2007 at 6:02 am
There’s right and real. That is, the RIGHT answer is what you should do while the REAL answer is what you will do. Seth Godin is right: The Red Cross should be thanking J&J for a century of support; instead they are biting the hand.
Meanwhile, bloggers, like journalists, love a good fight and have already picked the bad guy: J&J. Facts be damned. The REAL answer is that J&J looks bad because corporations are bad and Red Cross is good and … well, you get the idea.
J&J is right in the law but they’ve already lost in the court of public opinion where perception is reality. Go to http://jnjbtw.com/ for more on the J&J side of this.
September 16th, 2007 at 12:11 am
It would be really cool if people who are affiliated with Johnson & Johnson, consult for Johnson & Johnson and /or whose fortunes are linked to Johnson & Johnson would STOP pointing us back to the Johnson & Johnson “blog” to hear “the other side of the story.”
Particularly since you guys are posting the SAME THING OVER AND OVER all over the Internet under the guise of just being any ‘ol website visitor.
It smacks of desperation and makes Johnson & Johnson seem a tad bit icky.
November 26th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Hi Mary - I’m Wendy from the American Red Cross. I actually have subscribed to and enjoyed your blog for the better part of 2007, so I was quite interested to see your mention of this lawsuit here a few months ago.
I’d love to connect with you to share social media ideas.
I also thought I’d let you know that a key part of J&J complaint was dismissed a couple of weeks ago. We at the Red Cross are hoping this nudges them towards dropping the suit altogether.
ARC press release about the recent ruling: http://www.redcross.org/pressrelease/0,1077,0_314_7242,00.html