Keynote, Location: FESTAAL – Vienna Marriot Hotel

In popular culture, “gaslighting” – which was Merriam-Webster’s 2022 “word of the year” – is a widely used term to describe psychological head games, most often seen in either toxic family or intimate relationships. People who “gaslight” others generally use a range of unethical communication techniques to deflect responsibility for their own bad behaviors.

But what happens when the same disinformation-driven gaslighting techniques are industrialized… adopted by organizations, brands, and their PR teams, to deflect criticism, counterattack those who dare question leadership, and confuse valid issues by manipulating media? New and emerging research is delving into the problem of organizational gaslighting as an unethical PR practice – with metrics that the industry will want to watch, to take stock of whether one’s PR program is sliding down the slippery slope into unethical, trust-destructive territory.

Attendees will gain qualitative and quantitative insights gathered from senior PR agency leaders in recent months about:

• Ways in which organizational gaslighting manifests in the PR service context
• Whether organizational gaslighting is perceived to be on the rise, according to agency leaders
• Whether agency leaders perceive clients gaslight them / their teams
• The likelihood of PR teams doubting their own judgment or questioning their own credibility when under pressure from clients
• How self-censorship in the PR workplace correlates with gaslighting behaviors
• How this research is setting the stage for consumer-level inquiries in the next year