Lawyers increase talc ad spending after J&J's $9 billion settlement offer
By Diana Novak Jones
Nov 5 (Reuters) -Television advertisements soliciting claims from people who say they got cancer from talc powder products dramatically increased in September, the same month that Johnson & Johnson said it would pay more than $9 billion to resolve talc claims as part of a proposed bankruptcy settlement, according to new data.
Data from mass tort advertising tracker X Ante shows plaintiffs’ attorneys spent more than $778,000 to air more than 4,600 TV ads soliciting the claims, the most spent on talc ads since August 2023, according to X Ante founder Rustin Silverstein.
September's ad spending, an increase of more than 65% over the previous month, is still far less than lawyers were spending on ads in 2023, according to Silverstein. But it could represent a final push for clients from plaintiffs' attorneys who see the latest settlement offer as a potential end to the litigation.
Johnson & Johnson is facing lawsuits from more than 62,000 plaintiffs who say they were diagnosed with cancer after using baby powder and other talc products, according to a company filing.
That number is as high as 100,000 when counting claimants who haven't sued, Erik Haas, J&J's global vice president of litigation, has said.
The company has maintained its talc products are safe and do not cause cancer.
A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson declined to comment on the ad spending.
Johnson & Johnson has sought to resolve the claims through bankruptcy, a proposal that faced stiff opposition from some plaintiffs’ attorneys and has been rebuffed twice by federal courts.
Some plaintiffs’ attorneys support the deal as the best way to get compensation for their clients, while others argue that the settlement value is too low and that wealthy companies like J&J should not be allowed to use the legal system to gain bankruptcy protections meant for people and companies that cannot afford to pay their debts.
The jump in advertising came after Johnson & Johnson upped its proposed settlement in early September to resolve the claims by an additional $1.1 billion, bringing the potential value of a settlement to more than $9 billion paid over 25 years.
J&J's latest settlement offer addresses allegations that talc caused ovarian and other gynecological cancers, which are the bulk of the claims J&J faces.
On Sept. 20, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary filed for bankruptcy for a third time after the company said the majority of talc claimants had voted in support of another filing. The goal is to use the proceeding to resolve all current and future claims over talc.
After September’s increase, the TV advertising for talc claims dropped off steeply in October, according to Silverstein. Silverstein and his company X Ante track spending in television, radio and social media advertising of attorneys seeking claimants for mass torts.
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