When Coldplay's fans are innocent, but being caught in an affair at a concert is shameful, especially when the entire world saw Astronomer CEO Andy Byron hugging someone from behind, with HR Director Kristin Cabot. Andy Byron quickly crouched down after discovering the Kiss Cam, trying to escape the lens, but his suspicious behavior has become a global social media embarrassment.
The #AirflowAffair tag quickly rose on Western social media, with the two adulterous executives resigning the next day, and Astronomer, a startup primarily known for Airflow, instantly lost its credibility.
Unexpected PR Move: Bringing in Coldplay's Ex-Wife
Memes and mockery posts about the CEO spread rapidly online, reaching over 100,000 within a day. Astronomer employees anxiously discussed their future on Slack, with customers and investors demanding explanations. On July 25th, Astronomer's PR move was surprisingly brilliant!
Astronomer brought in actress Gwyneth Paltrow (the "Pepper" from Iron Man), who in a one-minute video introduced herself as a "super short-term spokesperson" for Astronomer. She first thanked everyone for their curiosity about Airflow's data workflow, then seriously stated, "Yes, we are the best team running Apache Airflow," directly redirecting gossip attention back to the company's core business.
Gwyneth Paltrow is the ex-wife of Coldplay's lead singer Chris Martin. They met in 2002, married in 2003, had two children, claimed a "conscious uncoupling" in 2014, and officially divorced in 2016, maintaining an intimate co-parenting and friendly relationship.
While every netizen was imagining the divorce proceedings the Astronomer CEO might face, bringing in Coldplay's lead singer's ex-wife was truly a stroke of genius humor.
Since Astronomer is hosting a data workflow conference Beyond Analytics in September, Pepper cleverly mentioned in the video that "the conference still has available seats," effectively advertising the event.
Transforming gossip attention into Astronomer's image as "the most knowledgeable about Apache Airflow". Whether this marriage crisis can be converted into a business focus is uncertain, but it was certainly a successful PR show.
