Gardner Harris

The scent of baby powder is the most recognized fragrance on the planet.

It's this extraordinary branding tool because, of course, when you're a baby and you smell this smell, it's delivered to you by your mother, the most important person in your life.

So from infancy, you associate this smell with love and trust.

And so it's this branding tool that was a shield for Johnson & Johnson forever.

When you talk about Johnson & Johnson, you are talking about American health care.

The story of Johnson & Johnson is the most important story of American health care of the last century.

And it is arguably one of the most important stories of American capitalism.

So it's the largest healthcare products conglomerate in the world.

It's $89 billion in revenue.

It's a part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

It is one of only two corporations on the planet that has a AAA credit rating.

Not even the United States government now has a AAA credit rating.

So it is...

an American icon.

I think in American terms, there are two companies that are most important to the American healthcare system.

One is United Healthcare Group, which is by far the largest health insurer, and the other is Johnson & Johnson.

And the reason why I wanted to do the book about Johnson & Johnson is that there are all these books about the opioid crisis,

And everyone thinks that it was Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers who were sort of solely responsible for the opioid crisis.

That is not true.

And again, it is a sign of just how extraordinary Johnson & Johnson is at its own public relations and its ability to stay out of the firing line from its own behavior that nobody knows that Johnson & Johnson was arguably much more important