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Talcum Powder Plantiff Profile
The demographics of the plaintiffs in talcum powder lawsuits shows they are middle class women over the age of 50. Their values include a strong sense of justice, belief in accountability and socially responsibility.
Plaintiff Profile
- Johnson & Johnson (J&J) tried for decades to grow weakening sales of its iconic talc. They used ads targeted specifically at certain types of women. It has now been found that many of those same types are among the plaintiffs in thousands of lawsuits that are alleging J&J powder caused their cancers.
- They aimed their marketing at two specific groups of longtime users: overweight women and African-Americans.
- J&J gave out free samples at beauty salons and churches in Hispanic and African-American neighborhoods, advertised through Weight Watchers, and ran a radio advertising campaign to "reach curvy Southern women 18-49 skewing African American".
- J&J also marketed to teens with focused ads promoting the product’s “fresh and natural” qualities. “You start being sexy when you stop trying,” was the text in an ad from Seventeen magazine in 1972.
- Most of the 13,000 plaintiffs currently in litigation fall into those categories.
- Demographics of the women involved in lawsuits shows they are generally above the age of 50. Specific cases include Eva Echeverria, a Hispanic woman who died in 2017 at the age of 63, Krystal Kim, a 53-year-old African-American woman and Lois Slemp,62, Deborah Giannecchini, 63, and Gloria Ristesund, 62 all Caucasian. Limited information points to middle class, educated women.
- Psychographics of people who initiate civil lawsuits for damages show they have a strong sense of justice, believe in accountability for ones' actions, and are socially responsible people who sue to stop the defendant from continuing whatever action led to the lawsuit.