Astronomer, a once little-known tech company, looked to the stars to turn a viral disaster into a marketing opportunity.
The company was introduced to the world after a “kiss cam” at a Coldplay show caught its now-former CEO, Andy Byron, embracing its now-former head of human resources, Kristin Cabot, before the pair ducked for cover.
The video ricocheted around the world, and the executives resigned days later.
Astronomer then moved to shift the narrative, and it did so by working with two A-list Hollywood stars: Gwyneth Paltrow and Ryan Reynolds.
Reynolds started the viral ad agency Maximum Effort in 2018. It has promoted the “Deadpool” movies, in which Reynolds also starred, and has made humorous ads for Match.com, Mint Mobile, the NAACP, and others. Reynolds is the chief creative officer.
It’s not clear who reached out to whom first. Maximum Effort and Astronomer did not immediately respond to messages from Business Insider. The ad agency, however, confirmed on LinkedIn on Sunday that it was behind Astronomer’s new ad, which featured Paltrow, poked fun at the controversy without ever mentioning it, and highlighted the company’s work.
Public relations experts told BI after the Coldplay incident that Astronomer could probably capitalize on what was otherwise a bad situation. The company’s collaboration with Maximum Effort appears to have done just that.
The commercial has been well-received, and some PR professionals told BI the company has fully succeeded in leveraging its accidental fame.
“Creating a video clever enough, yet with just enough controversy, to spread online and capture mainstream media attention is generating millions of dollars of free, positive publicity for Astronomer,” Kristi Piehl, founder and CEO of Media Minefield, told BI.
She said Paltrow’s script was “on message” and, importantly, focused on what Astronomer does, not what its former executives did.
“The video shifts the narrative, allowing Astronomer to have the last word,” Piehl said.
In the video, Paltrow is presented as a “temporary spokesperson” for the firm. She says the company has “gotten a lot of questions over the last few days” and wanted her to answer the “most common ones.”
But rather than share any new details about the now-infamous “kiss cam” moment, Paltrow promoted Astronomer’s products.
“If you want to talk crisis communications, this is a 2025 era playbook on how to do this the right way from a corporate standpoint,” Sam Amsterdam, founder and managing partner at Amsterdam Group Public Relations, told BI.
“They chose not to make this a crisis. This was a deliberate attempt at being pragmatic, at brand building, at brand defining,” he said.
Ryan McCormick, cofounder of Goldman McCormick PR, said the public is used to seeing corporate responses to crises that “miss their mark,” but that wasn’t the case this time.
“Astronomer nailed it here, and I think public interest in them will only increase for the foreseeable future,” he said.
Having made it through to the other side of a viral controversy, the company appears ready to move on. In a LinkedIn post on Sunday, Astronomer’s cofounder and new CEO, Pete DeJoy, thanked Maximum Effort for its “remarkable work.”
“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.”
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