(MENAFN- PRovoke) CHICAGO - There's no debate that society is living through an“age of rage” - from the murder of health care executives to the polarizing political debates that dominate news headlines. But at Provoke Media's Global Summit, five of the top executives in the communications industry shared how they are navigating these challenging times.

“The dominant, negative narrative about companies today has become about fairness,” said Michael Maslansky, CEO, Maslansky + Partners whose firm has extensively researched what is provoking so much rage in Americans right now.“It used to be about caring. 'You don't care about me. You're putting your interests before mine.' It has now shifted, I think in line with a lot of the political conversation to be one that is much more about, 'You are treating me unfairly, you are taking advantage of me.'”

Maslansky noted his research shows rage is less divided along political lines and more by age and affluence. He described the“richalantes” as the angriest of all Americans. He said they are“not the neediest population in a marketplace, but have the highest expectations about what they deserve from the market.” His research found they are“the most likely to say that violence is appropriate against executives who behave unethically.” They also harbor a lot of anger toward airlines and streaming companies.

But it's not just anger that consumers feel toward companies. He noted that“63% of the population says that across 16 industries, when they do business with companies, that they expect those companies to never, rarely or only sometimes do the right thing.”

It's a sentiment that Doug McGraw, JetBlue's chief communications officer said he saw started during Covid, expanded during the Biden administration, when fliers felt more emboldened by the passengers rights regulations the administration introduced and grew with the proliferation of discount airlines promising cheap deals. He noted how much time he spends dealing with angry customers who write to JetBlue's CEO when they are angry that they booked a nonrefundable plane ticket and now need to change their plans. He said that JetBlue spends a lot of time figuring out how best to respond to these challenges since it was founded on the goal of making travel pleasant again and preventing rage.

“In 2000, when we did our first flight, bringing humanity back to air travel meant a TV. It meant a leather seat and it meant free snacks. Basically the bar was actually very low,” said McGraw.“We have to constantly challenge ourselves about what that mission means today, what the consumer expects of us today.”

He added that the airline industry also receives far more attention.

“If it happens on the New York City subway, nobody pays attention. They look away. If it happens on an airplane, it'll be on all the morning shows, all the news sites,” said McGraw.“There's just a lot of combustible energy in the tin can in the air.”

Kathryn Beiser, most recently Eli Lilly and Company CCO, noted that like the airline industry, she is incredibly familiar with attracting outsized attention in the pharmaceutical industry - especially big pharma.

“Anytime you put 'big' in front of a sector, it's become politicized,” she said.“It's easy to hate the corporate people, but not your doctor or your nurse or your local pharmacist or something like that.”

She also warned communications officials when they are faced with a raged-filled attack, to be careful to identify the source of rage. At Eli Lilly, Beiser had to deal with someone who created a false Eli Lilly account saying the company was offering free insulin.

“The person who did that faux Twitter site was not some independent person who might have had diabetes. This was a well thought out campaign by an activist who has differing points of view on the American healthcare system,” said Beiser.“You have to put it all in context.”

She added that Eli Lilly countered with its own campaign.

“Our response to that was very much an action with the insulin, $35, pure and simple,” said Beiser.“It was a beautiful, competitive move.”

When moderator Rachel Catanach, FleishmanHillard's global managing director of corporate affairs of FleishmanHillard, asked the panelists how companies can“future-proof” against rage, here's what these top communications executives suggested:

1. Train every employee on press: McGraw noted that it only takes one employee to hurt the reputation of a major brand.“We really have to invest a lot of time and attention into every single individual in the organization because any one of them can ruin our reputation in just a second. And particularly in the airline industry, there's a lot of people out there working without a manager or supervisor kind watching them.”

2. Stay humble and listen: Beiser reminded all communications leaders to check their egos.“It's hard not to get caught up when your organization is doing so well. So I think you always have to stay humble and you have to keep questioning every single decision. And it's the listening, right? At some point, I think, and we've all worked with companies before, companies who do a better job of telling their story than listening.”

3. Try to understand where your clients are coming from: Viridian Ecosystems chief impact & corporate affairs officer Chris Samuel, who has extensive experience in the agricultural space, encouraged the audience to practice“active empathy” which he described as“really deeply understanding what is going on with the audience that we're trying to reach.” Samuel noted“I think we can all look at not just what Luigi Mangione did as abhorrent, but the people who cheered him on as also important. And from my perspective, we should also take a step back and say, 'What would possess these people to feel this way and what is it that we might be doing in the corporate world that may be making that a reality? And what can we do to change that perspective and kind of earn it back?'”

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