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god I hate PR flacks. "As the [pr] plan was constructed, Johnson & Johnson's top management put customer safety first, before they worried about their companies profit and other financial concerns." Do it for PR, not because its the right thing to do!

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Interesting that communicating why one should do 'the right thing' appears wrong. And yes I agree it is somehow unseemly.

Perhaps PR has the language to help financial types appreciate the value of good ethics.

I think software development has had similar problems making the case for good s/w engineering practices being financially sound and not just an nice idea.

What was really going on was that J&J put their long-term interests ahead of their short-term interests. It was not as big risk for them to do so as the writer implies, because they knew their brand was damaged by an external factor rather than something they had done themselves - quite different from the contrasting example of Perrier, where the problem was in their supply chain.

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