Coldplay kiss cam scandal: How best to handle a PR crisis

Euronews

a day ago

It's the scandal that has pushed the internet into overdrive. Now, instead of crumbling, the company impacted by the now-infamous 'kiss-cam' Coldplay incident has decided to put a positive spin on their CEO's on-screen transgression.
After being thrust into the spotlight, Astronomer has released a new promo video featuring none other than actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who has become the temporary spokesperson for company.
The Hollywood actress, who used to be married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, agreed to join in on the viral moment, which caught married Astronomer CEO Andy Byron with his arms around Kristin Cabot, the company's HR chief, during a Coldplay gig.
Paltrow can be seen in the new one-minute Astronomer video, thanking the public for their interest in the company – which up until recently was largely unknown to the general public.
'I've been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer,' she says in the clip. 'Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days – and they wanted me to answer the most common ones.'
A question is then typed out on the screen that reads: 'OMG, what the actual…'
Before the final four-letter-word-beginning-with-an-F-and-ending-with-an-UCK appears, the video cuts back to Paltrow, who goes on to promote some of the services Astronomer offers.
'We've been thrilled so many people have a newfound interest in data workflow automation.'
Another question then pops up on the screen: 'How is your social media team holding up?'
Again, before the sentence fully appears, Paltrow interrupts to say that Astronomer still has tickets for an upcoming conference in September.
'We'll now be returning to what we do best: delivering game-changing results for our customers,' she adds at the end of the video.
It's a canny move from Astronomer, which has clearly understood that the viral 'Coldplaygate' needn't be a source of (total) ridicule and that the now-pop culture phenomenon could be spun to their advantage.
Instead of ignoring the issue and dodging questions, their strategy has been to embrace the embarrassment and own it. And Paltrow is not the only celebrity attached to the company's cheeky retort, as Ryan Reynold's company, Maximum Effort, announced its involvement in the video.
"Thank you for your interest in Maximum Effort, @astronomerio! We'll now get back to what we do best: motion pictures with Hugh Jackman, Fastvertising and Wrexham football," Maximum Effort's X post read. "We'll leave data workflow automation to Gwyneth Pa... Astronomer."
Maximum Effort makes ads and movies - often with an irreverent tone that mirrors Reynold's comedic style.
Astronomer's co-founder and new CEO, Pete DeJoy, thanked Maximum Effort in a LinkedIn post on Sunday.
"I'd also like to thank the team at Maximum Effort for their remarkable work with our very temporary spokesperson," DeJoy said. "As Gwyneth Paltrow said, now it's time for us to return to what we do best: delivering game-changing results for our customers. We look forward to what this next chapter holds for Astronomer."
Days after the Coldplaygate clip went viral, it was revealed that Byron had resigned from Astronomer. Then, on 25 July, Cabot also stepped down from her role as chief people officer.
Their much-memed transgression has led to online streams of Coldplay's songs jumping by 20 per cent according to Luminate, the industry data and analytics company, as well as increased interest in Astronomer.
The company was founded in 2018, and provides services for companies that want to leverage Artificial Intelligence.
DeJoy has said that the company has faced an "unusual and surreal" amount of attention since the event. He wrote on LinkedIn: "While I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name."
In the wake of Byron's resignation, Chris Martin joked about the situation: 'We'd like to say hello to some of you in the crowd and put some of you on the big screen. How we're going to do that is we're going to use our cameras and put some of you on the big screen. Please, if you haven't done your makeup, do your makeup now!'
Une publication partagée par Coldplay Indonesia (@idwantscoldplay)
The moment has also led Liam Gallagher to joke about the incident at a recent Oasis gig, telling fans not to worry as there are no cameras focused on the crowd during their reunion tour.
"Don't worry for those who are cheating we don't have that Coldplay camera here," he said.
Elsewhere, a new video game inspired by the viral moment is now available to play.
Coldplay Canoodlers AKA The Cheating Game sees players take on the role of a kiss-cam operator and have to scan the crowd of a stadium show looking for the loved-up pair.
Check it out here.
'I vibe coded a little game called Coldplay Canoodlers. You're the camera operator and you have to find the CEO and HR lady canoodling. 10 points every time you find them,' explained game creator Jonathan Mann on X. 'I wanted to see how fast I could vibe code a simple game based on a viral moment.'
As if that weren't enough, the word "Coldplayed" has become a recent addition to the dictionary, courtesy of Ultimate Classic Rock.
"Coldplayed" as a verb is defined thusly: "The act of being unintentionally exposed while cheating, especially in public, usually during major events" and "To be seen at the wrong place with the wrong person at the wrong time."