Unraveling the Astronomer PR response

Last week was—well, a week for a company the general public hadn’t heard of before: Astronomer.

Even if you live under a rock, you likely heard of the scandal: the company’s CEO and the head of HR were caught canoodling at a Coldplay concert by Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay himself.

They scattered like cockroaches, but that might have actually made it worse, because the whole thing was broadcast over every single media platform available.

Everyone was making memes: your sandwich shop. Your gym. Your favorite clothing company. Your bank.

I’ll be honest and say I was super frustrated—or maybe disgusted?—by how the whole thing spiraled out of control. It was like the universe forgot that there are other people on the end of this affair—another wife, another husband, maybe some kids, all having the absolute worst day of their lives.

And I still don’t agree with it (you sure didn’t catch me making or sharing memes), but there is a silver lining:

We got to witness the PR clapback of the century.

In case you missed it: the Astronomer PR video

If Don Draper was real, he’d shed a tear.

Of joy, of course. If you ever watched Mad Men, then you probably know his famous line:

If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.

And boy, did they ever.

Why I think the response is brilliant

I’ve seen some chatter about why this wasn’t a good idea—mostly poo-pooing the company for using humor in a very unfunny corporate situation that can leave a high impact on company culture.

But I have to disagree. No one wanted to hear some grave, word-salad piece of corporate bullshit. In fact, they’d already put one out:

It sure didn’t bubble up to the top of the feeds. But guess what did? The video.

Here’s why it works so well.

They (kind of?) helped us understand what Astronomer does.

I mean, they introduced the words “Apache Airflow” into the conversation. And you can bet I Googled it. I honestly thought it had something to do with military jets.

It doesn’t.

I still only have a vague idea of what it is, but hey—I know what the company does now. And I’m pretty sure that was one of the biggest questions people were asking: “What does this Astronomer place even do, anyway?”

They spoke to people who would never be their customers.

Here’s the thing about moments like this: when your company is being pummeled for a highly public incident, 95% of the people coming at you are never going to be your customers.

I’ve been unfortunate enough to manage some nasty PR crises on social media, and sadly, most people out there just like to troll and cause chaos.

You don’t get rid of those people with run-of-the-mill corporate statements. Instead, you just shock the daylights out of them.

The humor hit all the right notes.

Especially for anyone that’s actually had to manage a PR crisis before.

Again, maybe that’s just my PTSD speaking. But when this whole thing was going on, all I could think was, Oh dear lord, that poor social team.

They flawlessly addressed two questions: a nation going, “What the actual f—,” and how much turmoil is going on behind the doors. A masterclass in “show, don’t tell.”

Oh, and that cheesy corporate backing track? Yeah, this might be the only time I haven’t hated stock music.

They took advantage of their 15 minutes of fame for some promo.

I loved that they snuck in a little promo for their conference. I mean…make lemonade, right? Sure, 95% of the people aren’t your customers. But with such massive reach, you’re bound to hit some of them. Why not bring awareness to an actual business goal? Shoot for the moon, kids.

They achieved the ultimate shock value.

I mean, Gwyneth! I honest to god thought this was fake when I first saw an article. They’d already been battling fake PR statements from spoof accounts, and with how insane AI is these days, we really need to keep our guard up.

But no—it’s real. They actually got Chris Martin’s ex-wife to do this press mitigation in a situation that’s likely causes divorces.

I bet I’ve missed some good “conscious uncoupling from the CEO” headlines.

Want to know who actually made this happen?

I have never in my life wanted to be a fly on a creative room’s walls as much as I have here.

That’s what I kept saying to my husband all weekend (poor guy, married an ad nerd). I kept thinking, “This feels like a Ryan Reynolds commercial.”

And guess what?

His production company, Maximum Effort, is actually behind it.

Dear lord, they’re so freakin’ good at this.

I wonder—who approached who? Did Maximum Effort reach out to them or vice versa?

How much did Gwyneth get paid?

How did they get through in all this turmoil!?

Did Chris Martin have to convince her to do it because he felt bad?

Honestly, the questions—both serious and ridiculous—are swirling.

And ultimately, the questions don’t matter. What matters is that we’re going to have a new PR recovery that’s going to go down in history.

Maybe all the PR students can stop talking about the Tylenol murders in their presentations now.