Bayer Triggers Scare With White Powder Sent Through Mail
Bayer sent 33,561 packets of white powder through the U.S. Postal Service in a promotion for aspirin, triggering a federal alert to local emergency services. According to the Boston Herald:
“Police departments are going to be inundated with calls about this. The anthrax scare is still fresh in people’s minds,” said Lawrence Police Chief John J. Romero. “After 9/11 it’s a whole different ballgame, and I think the company should have probably realized it.”
The white powder was Bayer’s Quick Release Cystals, which Bayer is launching in the U.S. The aspirin may show as white powder as the envelopes travel though the postal system, the ProJo blog noted.
Authorities said the product was safe, and Bayer pointed out that the product came in a printed envelope with FDA information and coupons. A total of 178,000 envelopes will eventually be mailed.
The promotion ends May 29.
- Previous items on Bayer:
- Probe: Bayer Destroyed Evidence After Fatal Explosion; Tried to Dampen Media Coverage
- Bayer’s Silence on Fatal Factory Explosion Gets National Attention
- Bayer’s Lawyers Nix Public Hearing on Explosion at WV Plant
- Why the Bayer-Yaz Settlement Will Not Change Drug Advertising Forever
- Bayer’s Advertising for Contraceptive Yaz Was “Misleading”
- Bayer Funding of Beekeepers’ Association Draws Controversy
- Bayer to Pay $796,500 in EPA Fines at Plant That Exploded
- FDA sends Bayer a warning letter for unsubstantiated claims over Drontal for dogs.
- Trasylol Deaths Trigger Lawsuits
- Ethics Problems Are Business as Usual at Bayer
- The FDA slams Bayer with two warning letters for allegedly selling unapproved aspirin products.
- FTC fines Bayer $3.2 million for falsely claiming vitamins cause weight loss and for violating prior order not to make false claims.
- Bayer forced to discontinue advertising for All-Day Energy multivitamin which doesn’t last all day.
- Bayer cited by NAD for not telling the truth when it said Aleve was the No. 1 medicine among orthopedic surgeons
- Bayer makes unsubstantiated claims about rivals to its Ascencia diabetes blood glucose monitor
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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