Hands up if you’d heard of data and workflow management company Astronomer before the infamous Coldplay concert “kiss cam” incident last week. No, me neither.
The AI startup was thrust into the spotlight when its married familyman CEO Andy Byron was caught on camera in front of tens of thousands of music fans canoodling with the company’s chief people officer Kristin Cabot. The couple quickly disengaged and tried to duck down out of view of the “kiss cam.” But the damage had already been done.
As the scene played out on a Jumbotron in the Gillette Stadium outside of Boston, Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin commented from the stage, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
Turns out it was the former. The tawdry incident quickly took off on social media and blew up around the world like only a good viral storm can. Within days, Byron’s wife had scrubbed any mention of him from her social media, the CEO was subject to evisceration and hoax messages were posted online.
The “kiss cam” and Jumbotron received a new lease of life and memes and spoofs abounded at events of all types over the past week, as well as on TV shows. Some brands latched onto the opportunity and produced their own social media meme reactions to the amorous couple’s unfortunate situation.
Coldplay’s Martin reminded concertgoers that they could be on the Jumbotron at any time during his band’s shows. Many of them reveled in the opportunity. Something had to give and Byron finally stood down from his role at Astronomer over the weekend.
Interim CEO and cofounder of Astronomer Pete DeJoy attempted to reset the narrative by posting a simple but effective statement on LinkedIn Monday titled “Moving Forward.” He also admitted, “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.”
Maybe Oasis lead singer Liam Gallagher had it right when he said in inimitable fashion at the band’s gig in Manchester on Sunday night: “Do we have any lovebirds in the house? Don’t worry, we don’t got any of that Coldplay snidey camera shit. Doesn’t matter to us who you’re mingling with, or tingling with. It’s none of our business.”
That may be so. But unfortunately the world of social media doesn’t quite work like that for software company CEOs canoodling with their heads of HR.
Some of the following comms lessons shouldn’t need repeating, but clearly there are still some people who haven’t read the Crisis 101 playbook:
- CEOs and senior executives shouldn’t engage in romantic relationships with members of their staff, especially the head of HR. It didn’t work out well for McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook, who had a consensual relationship with an employee and was fired in 2019. It didn’t work for BP’s Bernard Looney, who failed to disclose prior relationships with employees and was let go in 2023. And it didn’t work for Andy Byron at Astronomer.
- If you must conduct a relationship with an employee, keep it on the down-low and don’t expect to go to a public venue with 50,000 other people watching a high-profile concert and not understand the possibility of being caught on camera in a compromising situation.
- Have the skeleton of a holding statement in place as preparation for a crisis situation that may arise. Tailor it accordingly to individual situations. And try to stem the tide or get ahead of a story once it has broken. In some cases no response is the right course of action. But in most cases at least a holding statement is advisable, especially if, as in this case, fake statements purporting to be from Byron are floating around.
- Carry out a thorough but immediate and swift investigation to check facts and find out what happened. If personnel change is required, act decisively.
- For brands considering piggybacking on incidents such as this for memes and clicks, bear in mind the feelings of the innocent parties caught up in this situation, such as the respective partners and families. Sometimes ethical considerations should outweigh a short-term opportunity to jump on the back of a meme.
