Hollywood actress and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow has been hired by tech company Astronomer as a “temporary spokesperson.”
“I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer,” Paltrow said in the clip shared on the company’s Instagram on Friday night.
Astronomer had been in the spotlight ever since a scandal involving its CEO Andy Byron and Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot at a Coldplay concert in Massachusetts. When the two, who are reportedly married to other people, got caught together on a “kiss cam,” they awkwardly tried to hide, and Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin had joked “either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
Footage of this incident went viral, and both executives ended up resigning from their roles in Astronomer. “Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” the company said, while announcing Byron’s resignation.
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Interestingly, Paltrow is Martin’s ex-wife, and she had been brought on board as part of a tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign. A new marketing video has Paltrow trying to refocus the attention on Astronomer’s products while playfully acknowledging how that might be a challenge. He introduces herself as someone who’s been “hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employers at Astronomer,” and then promises to answer the “most common” questions asked about the company but when most of the questions are about the Coldplay video, Paltrow firmly turns them around to talk about Astronomer’s products.
“We’ve been thrilled so many people have a newfound interest in data workflow automation,” she said. Paltrow even finds time to plug the company’s upcoming conference before concluding, “We will now be returning to what we do best — delivering game-changing results for our customers.”
Astronomer seems to be using the newfound attention as a marketing opportunity. “It’s a really clever video,” Jordan Greenaway, CEO of PR firm Profile says. “Everyone has heard about this scandal, everyone has seen the video. But if you’d gone down the street and asked someone who the CEO of Astronomer was, they’d say ‘the guy in the Coldplay video,’ but if you then asked ‘what does Astronomer actually do or sell,’ they would probably say ‘they’re kind of a tech company.’”
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Greenaway added that the video going viral wouldn’t have a negative impact on the company since the scandal is unrelated to the quality of its product. He says the company’s goal was to create brand awareness amongst the mass public so the company isn’t just known for the scandal.
The adage that all publicity is good publicity seems to hold true for Astronomer, considering it has gone from being a little-known company to a household name. Co-founder and interim CEO Pete DeJoy wrote on LinkedIn about the situation: “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.”