It has been called “the best crisis management ever”
It has also been described as ‘PR gold’ and ‘genius marketing’.
And it has undoubtedly grabbed attention.
But was it really such a brilliant crisis communication response? And is it something other organisations could replicate?
We are, of course, talking about Gwyneth Paltrow and her viral video as the “very temporary” spokesperson for Astronomer.
You know the backstory. The beleaguered company had been in crisis media management mode after its CEO, Andy Byron, and chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, were caught in an embrace by the ‘kiss cam’ at a Coldplay concert.
The amazingly awkward footage went viral.
And the company’s initial response was poor, breaking many crisis communication training rules. In particular, a prolonged period of silence allowed misinformation, speculation and even fake statements to set the narrative.
Eventually, it found its voice and issued statements that included announcing the departure of Mr Byron.
And then came the crisis communication plot twist no one saw coming.
A video update presented by Ms Paltrow, who was once married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, and posted under the headline ‘Thank you for your interest in Astronomer’.
"I've been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer,” Ms Paltrow said.
“Astronomer has got a lot of questions in the last few days, and they wanted me to answer the most common ones."
A series of questions then appear on the screen, starting with “What the actual f***”, which the actress ignores and evades.
In response to a question about how the social media team is holding up, she says: “Yes, there is still space available at our Beyond Analytics event this September."
The video, which carefully sidesteps the controversy, has had more than 37 million views on X and more than 600,000 views on YouTube.
And, naturally, it captured the attention of mainstream media.
It is a bold, audacious, high-risk crisis media management response to a corporate scandal.
It is creative, light-hearted, self-aware and humorous – something that is tough to achieve in crisis media management. I particularly like the line about the company being “thrilled” so many people have a "newfound interest in data workflow automation".
It’s a response that reminds me of the John F Kennedy quote: “When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters - one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.”
And it is probably not a move you would associate with a company of tech nerds – I’m not sure anyone who has watched it is any wiser on what Astronomer does, despite this attempt to fill in some of the gaps.
I can’t imagine how difficult this video – and the idea of turning a crisis into content - must have been to get signed off.
At the risk of sounding like the fun police, I’m not completely convinced.
I love the unexpected nature of this approach to try to regain control of the narrative and reset the story.
However, the video was released when attention was starting to move on from Astronomer.
Was it strategically sensible to breathe new life into the crisis and send it back to the top of our timelines just when the dust appeared to be starting to settle?
Reamplifying, prolonging and poking fun at the issue that has landed you in a global crisis is a ballsy PR move.
But my bigger issue is that after such a poor response to the initial stages of the crisis – it stayed quiet for 48 hours – having a ‘spokesperson’ deflect and ignore difficult questions does not sit well.
I know it is meant to be funny, but is it a good look? Good crisis communication is about being honest, empathetic and transparent. Not attempts to distract and evade.
Undoubtedly, the video has helped cement Astronomer’s place as a household name. And it suggests the company seems to have adopted the ‘all publicity is good publicity’ mantra.
But despite the huge viewing figures, does anyone know much about it beyond the fact that it is the company from the Coldplay video?
The video is filled with jargon, like “Apache Airflow” and “AI pipelines”, that makes me question who it is aimed at and whether, beyond briefly entertaining the public, it has been successful.
Is extensive publicity that great if hardly anyone understands what you do? I think it is a missed opportunity.
That seems highly unlikely.
Humour is notoriously difficult to get right in crisis communication. KFC did it well when it famously ran out of chicken.
But it is a high-stakes approach, and getting it wrong will only make a crisis worse.
Ms Paltrow – with her links to Coldplay – is the perfect temporary spokesperson for this video.
But that appointment must have come at a significant cost, so I doubt there will be a deluge of A-listers and influencers following suit and leading crisis responses.
A more effective approach – and one that could have saved Astronomer from so much of the initial damage it endured – is to invest in crisis communication training that enables you to respond quickly and grab control of the narrative.
Now, what global superstar can we grab to front a video about that?
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