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Dow Chemical Company

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As a manager at the Dow Chemical Company overseeing the silicon breast implant litigation, I would opt to conduct a full-scale advertising campaign focused on describing “…the benefits of silicone products. Without mentioning the breast-implant issue,” and “tell numerous heart-wrenching tales about how silicone products have saved the lives of children. “
I think this would be the most strategic way to handle this situation given the circumstances. By design, this campaign would yield many benefits for Dow Chemical’s business.

First of all, this campaign would distract the general public from the negative aspects of the silicone products business and focus them on the positive aspects. I am confident that appealing to people’s emotions is truly effective and would help Dow Chemicals restore their corporate image. By providing facts about some “heart-wrenching” situation about how silicone products save numerous lives of children we would blur the negative conception about silicone products, if not completely remove it. The general public responds well to messages that have a strong emotional flow. If the advertising campaign would not be able to remove the bad perception of silicone products from the general public, it would at least impose a sense of differentiation in regards to the silicone products. By default, people associate silicone with the silicone breast implants. This advertising campaign would aim to make people associate the silicone products with something else, such as a silicone foot prosthesis or other important silicone product/device that is used to improve someone’s health and overall quality of life.

Secondly, by emphasizing the importance of silicone products in general and Dow Chemical’s role in this industry, the company would be able to influence the general public and therefore the potential jury. After being exposed to a few rounds of heavy, emotional advertising that associates silicone with improving lives and Dow Chemical with helping society, the potential jury might think twice before deciding to cause significant harm, through an unfavorable decision, to a company and a product that provides so many medical benefits and solutions to a range of health issues.

On top of potentially contributing to a positive resolution of the silicone-breast law suit the advertising campaign would also create awareness of other products produced by Dow Chemical but that are not widely popular or acknowledged among the general public. This essentially means that the advertising campaign would also create more sales for the company.

To conclude I would say that by communicating an informative, emotional message to the general public the company would be able to improve its corporate image, educate the general public about silicone products, create awareness and drive in sales.

If I were the plaintiff… If I were the plaintiff in this situation I think the advertising tactics would definitely have an impact on me because they could heavily influence opinion and potential rewards decided upon in my case. I would combat the messaging of Dow Chemicals with an advertising campaign of my own. Its goal would be to show that just because 9 out of 10 products made by Dow Chemicals are good, doesn’t mean that they did not create a bad 10th product that has caused significant harm to its victims.

By telling emotional stories about many of the victims of faulty breast implants, the plaintiff could also play to the public’s emotions as well as hold Dow Chemicals responsible for the damage its silicon breast implant caused. I would use the pro-Dow advertising campaign against itself by pointing out that if Dow Chemicals is responsible for all the good results that its products brings its customers, than it is also culpable for the negative results that its products cause its customers.

However, the fact that during the lawsuit the company promotes the “vitality” of its silicone products, it saves lives and changes the world for the better, implies that Dow Chemical is trying to communicate that a potential considerable monetary penalty might disrupt all these good things and prevent Dow from helping people in the future. As the plaintiff, I may not want this to happen or I may see the tide of public opinion moving against me, and in this situation, I may opt to settle the suit rather than proceed to court.

Instead of a monetary settlement that might create complications for Dow Chemical’s core operations, under settlement terms I may request a stake in the company - it would most likely be restricted stock. It think this way the plaintiff gets compensated for the damage done and at the same time avoids potential public backlash or the time and money lost to a case ruled against me. Dow Chemicals also wins in this scenario because it doesn’t lose actual cash and gets away with awarding some restricted stock that it owns, meaning the plaintiff can’t sell the stock for a given period of time, while also significantly boost its corporate image.

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