Astronomer, the tech startup embroiled in the kiss cam scandal at a Coldplay concert, is milking the viral moment for perfect PR. Since it is now practically ‘a household name,’ the company has hired Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow, the ex-wife of Coldplay’s vocalist Chris Martin, as its new and ‘very temporary’ spokesperson.
Andy Byron, the ex-CEO Astronomer of was captured canoodling with the company’s HR head, Kristin Cabot, on the kiss cam. A video of them draped in each other’s arms and their shocked reaction to discovering themselves on the jumbotron went viral on social media.
Astronomer’s new cheeky ad featured Gwyneth as its “temporary spokesperson,” using social media’s attention for the best of the company.
“Thank you for your interest in Astronomer,” the company wrote alongside the ad in which Gwyneth introduced herself, saying, “I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of 300+ employees at Astronomer.”
In a witty, yet veiled placement of a reference to the scandal, the actress said, “Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days, and they wanted me to answer the most common ones.”
While the audience anticipates a mention of the scandal after a quite obvious question: “OMG! What the actual F” highlighted on the screen, Gwyneth calmly went on to describe how amazing the Astronomer was, and listed the many tech services it offers.
Check out the cheeky Astronomer ad:
Here’s how netizens reacted:
Netizens were overjoyed by the “clever marketing” of Astronomer, and gave it a 10/10 for such a “smooth” PR recovery. Social media users also lauded the tech firm for using a crisis situation as an “ultimate brand awareness” campaign.
“You have to give credit where credit is due. This is 10/10 PR recovery. Hiring Chris Martin’s ex wife to do this is brilliant. Well played!” a user said.
“Guys this is a PR masterclass. You take the most viral moment of July 2025 and, instead of disaster control, make light of the situation and create the ultimate brand awareness. Bravo,” another added.
“This is marketing jiu jitsu,” claimed a user.
“One of the best crisis responses I’ve ever seen in my life,” added another.
Netizens called their choice of Gwyneth Paltrow “savage, extraordinary”.
“You got Chris Martin’s ex wife???!!! Savage,” said a user.
Another added, “You hired the Coldplay singer’s ex-wife. Extraordinary.”
“LMFAO good job. cultural tides are shifting,” a user said.
Some users, however, noted that the initiative was a week late, and would have hit its best when the trend was still on the rise.
“Don’t like being a doomer (but), it’s the right message, a week late,” a user said.
“They’re almost a week late to the game. They missed the window. The viral moment demands immediacy, like it or hate it (I actually kind of hate it),” added another.
“It was indeed clever. Even if timing was a bit off,” said another user.
‘Unusual and surreal’: Pete DeJoy
Earlier, Astronomer’s interim CEO and co-founder, Pete DeJoy, described the intense media focus following the Coldplay scandal as “unusual and surreal”.
“The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies—let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world—ever encounter,” he said.
“The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name,” he added.
What happened at the Coldplay concert?
A viral video filmed during Coldplay’s performance at Gillette Stadium on July 16 showed a man and a woman on the ‘kiss cam’. The man had his arms around the woman and was embracing the moment.
However, just as they realised that they were being shown on the big screen, both appeared to quickly hide their faces. The woman was seen briskly covering her face, while the man ducked out of sight.
Chris Martin noticed the couple’s odd reaction on the jumbotron and had joked, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
The footage circulated like wildfire on the internet, and Astronomer’s CEO, Andy Byron, was identified as the man embracing the woman, the company’s Head of Human Resources, Kristin Cabot.
Both Andy and Kristin are married.
Andy stepped down from his role as the CEO of the company he co-founded, and so did Kristin.
A company statement confirmed his resignation, saying, “Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding.”
“Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” they said, referring to the incident.