Johnson & Johnson says its Baby Powder is safe. But Reuters found its talc was sometimes tainted with asbestos, a fact it kept from regulators and the public.
This article is only dealing with the inhalation issue, but there have been previous cases about J&J with ovarian cancer and I just want to highlight a different Reuters article from a couple of years ago.
A report in the June 1966 edition of the American Journal of Diseases of Children, citing the deaths of three children who inhaled large amounts of talcum powder, concluded there was “no justification” for using the product on babies because it has “no medicinal value.”
"Beginning in the 1970s, J&J ran ads clearly intended to woo young women, in addition to its traditional marketing aimed at families with babies. “You start being sexy when you stop trying,” was the line from an ad that appeared in Seventeen magazine in 1972.
- “As worries about Baby Powder’s safety mounted, J&J focused its pitches on minority, overweight women”, Reuters 2021
After they lost the baby market they preyed on teenage girls and women’s insecurities by marketing it to them as a part of “feminine hygiene”. The talc migrated into their ovaries.
A young woman with long blonde hair sits at the base of a tree. A young man’s head rests in her lap looking up at her, and she touches his hair. The photo is taken from ground level, and the golden grass leaves partially conceal the couple. Text advertizing Johnson and Johnson talc is overlayed on the photo
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You start being sexy when you stop trying.
If a boy’s interested in you, it should be because you’re you. Not because you wear musky perfume, make-up, or anything else that makes you something you’re not.
Johnson’s Baby Powder lets you be you. Because Johnson’s is fresh and pure and natural. It won’t make you smell like a siren. It just has the smell of clean skin. And smoothing it on after you shower or bathe will keep your skin feeling clean and cool and silky. Johnson’s Baby Powder. Stop trying. Just try it.
This article is only dealing with the inhalation issue, but there have been previous cases about J&J with ovarian cancer and I just want to highlight a different Reuters article from a couple of years ago.
After they lost the baby market they preyed on teenage girls and women’s insecurities by marketing it to them as a part of “feminine hygiene”. The talc migrated into their ovaries.
1972 Johnson & Johnson talc advertisment in Seventeen magazine
Image description
A young woman with long blonde hair sits at the base of a tree. A young man’s head rests in her lap looking up at her, and she touches his hair. The photo is taken from ground level, and the golden grass leaves partially conceal the couple. Text advertizing Johnson and Johnson talc is overlayed on the photo
Image text