Bausch and Lomb has some savvy PR folks cranking out the message these days. As a contact lens wearer myself, I was very surprised to find this:
Important message about ReNu(R)
in my email inbox.
May 15, 2006 |
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| CEO: Safety is Our No. 1 Priority | |
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| Chairman & CEO Ron Zarrella announces Bausch & Lomb is permanently taking MoistureLoc contact lens solution off the global market immediately. Runs: 2:10 | |
How’d they know where to find me? Oh, I remember. I ordered that new lens solution over the web — the one that is being tied to eye fungus and is all over the news. Well, here’s what the B & L Chairman and CEO Ron Zarella told me personally in my email.
| Dear loyal ReNu consumer,
As indicated in our previous email, we stopped selling our MoistureLoc® formulation more than a month ago. Despite exhaustive testing, we are unable to eliminate the possibility of a link to an apparent increase of a rare eye infection. Therefore, we will not reintroduce the MoistureLoc® formula. Follow this link to view a video message from Bausch & Lomb CEO, Ron Zarrella. Our goal is to provide you with the most reliable information so that you have a clear understanding of how this situation affects you and the Bausch & Lomb ReNu solutions you use. |
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| We want to make following your eye care professional’s recommendations easier. That’s why we created the Bausch & Lomb Wear&Care™ Program. This program provides you with the information and products you need for healthy contact lens wear, and best of all it’s FREE — so get started today.
If you have not yet requested your coupon for a FREE 12-oz. bottle of ReNu MultiPlus solution, please follow this link. So, this is terrific… a streaming video message straight from the CEO and they created this Wear and Care “club” (healthy contact lens care program) just for consumers such as ME! Wow! They’ve got my attention. They are giving me lots of free eye stuff. Thank you for your understanding and continued support. Then, I’m watching television the same night and there is Mr. Zarella giving the same video message I’d just heard on my computer that afternoon. My first reaction was, “Hey, I know that guy!” You can read this message by visiting a pdf document on their website at http://www.bausch.com/5_15_message.pdf A quick Google news search on May 18, shows all of this reaction to the B & L issue. It will be interesting to follow this case and see what editorials pop up later on. It’s a classic PR case in the making, for sure. Tricia Bishop is covering this for the Baltimore Sun. A sampling of other coverage is linked below.
MORE NEWS ON THIS CASE POSTED AUGUST 7, 2006 One Wall Street Journal article by Sylvia Pagan Westphal, boasting line graph entitled “Eye Sore,” reveals that studies showed as long as nine years ago that there might be problems related to serious fungal eye infections in the U.S. and Asia because of multi-purpose solutions. The author claims that then the manufacturers downplayed concerns, blaming problems not on the product, but on how it was being used. So, do you think the company has an obligation to push proper lens care more fervently than it already did back then? Where does personal responsibility come into play? Okay, so what else is new with this case? The August 1 issue of the Wall Street Journal includes a compelling story by Zacahry M.Seward, headlined “Contact Lens Wearers Seek Solutions.” Great pun in the headline, there. The subhead reads: “As infection worries widen, dorctors offer some safey tips; a hydrogen-peroxide solution.” So, as the science confuses more than resolves the infection issues, doctors are recommending a return to the old days. Much is made about personal efforts and hygiene to keep these lenses CLEAN. Isn’t that common sense? The American Optometric Association weighs in: “We’re seeing much more vigilance, and patients are asking what they can do to prevent these infections.” While the Bausch & Lomb incident created some alarm, most wearers simply switched brands without waiting to understand that it’s not Bausch & Lomb that’s at issue — it’s multi-purpose solutions and cleaning habits. The case continues to unfold. |
