Plus: CEOs brag about shrinking headcount on earnings calls; breaking down Walmart’s violence holding statements.
It would be easy for Astronomer, which was caught up in the Coldplay kiss cam scandal that cost the AI company both its CEO and chief people officer, to stay quiet right now. No one could blame them for hunkering down and trying to ride out the storm until people forgot they were a punchline.
But Astronomer appears to be trying to capitalize on their shocking notoriety in a clever way.
Gwenyth Paltrow, who famously “consciously uncoupled” from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin in 2014, filmed a video for Astronomer.
Dubbing herself a “very temporary spokesperson,” the tongue-in-cheek video sidesteps the controversy entirely. While the framing says Paltrow will answer common questions about the company, and the screen shows questions like “OMG! What the actual f,” Paltrow ignores them and instead has to suppress laughter as she delivers lines like, “Yes! Astronomer is the best place to run Apache Airflow, unifying the experience of running data, ML and AI pipelines at scale.”
(Don’t worry, Gwenyth, we don’t know what it means either).
The language at the end of the video echoes and reinforces the language used in the statement announcing former CEO Andy Byron’s resignation.
“We will now be returning to what we do best: delivering game-changing results for our customers,” Paltrow said.
The video has garnered half a million views on YouTube in two days, with more on other social platforms.
Why it matters: Is all publicity good publicity? The old chestnut can be debated ad nauseum. But Astronomer is clearly coming down on the “yes” side of the equation. As long as people are visiting their webpage and creeping them on LinkedIn, why not ensure they know what the company actually does?
Hiring Paltrow was a funny, smart move: They’re associating themselves with and distancing themselves from Coldplay in the same stroke. The fact that the actress-turned-health-and-beauty mogul clearly knows nothing about what the company does is even funnier. It was also undoubtedly a pricy decision — she reportedly charged $250,000 to attend a sponsored party in 2023 — but now the company is earning positive headlines and showing that it’s going to claw back from this scandal in style.
Astronomer is a small company. Its recovery looks different from that of a major player that’s already cemented in the public’s mind with a brand perception. It’s building its brand perception in real time. With careful management, they can be seen as the company that rose from the ashes of a Coldplay concert and emerged stronger than before.
Editor’s Top Reads:
- CEOs are touting shrinking headcounts on earnings calls — and Wall Street loves it. “Over the last 15 years or so, we went from 300,000 people to 212,000 people,” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said earlier this month. “We just got to keep working that down.” Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf bragged about 20 straight quarters of decreasing headcount, saying attrition “is our friend.” The Wall Street Journal reports that AI is behind much of the shrinkage, with the technology enabling employees to do more with less — and companies to do with fewer employees. While the outward messaging is positive, companies must always balance these earnings statements with their employer branding and their relationship with employees. While it might be great news to investors, employees who are fearful for their jobs won’t deliver their best work. Continue to be clear about what kinds of work will be automated in the future, what expectations are for employees and how job cuts will be managed. Attrition is one thing for morale — and layoffs are another. Balancing these competing interests is tricky, but skilled communicators can keep everyone feeling informed and valued.
- Speaking of AI, the White House has issued an executive order against “woke AI.” Mashable reports that this is defined as, “Ideological neutrality means that LLMs shall be neutral, nonpartisan tools that do not manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas like DEI, and that developers will not intentionally encode partisan or ideological judgments into an LLM’s outputs unless those judgments are prompted by or readily accessible to the end user.” Now, it isn’t illegal to create AI models that prioritize DEI, but these companies may not receive federal contracts. But it’s important to remember that every AI tool has biases. True ideological neutrality is impossible for a tool designed by humans. No matter how neutral an AI tool purports to be, communicators using them must be on guard to understand those biases and how to achieve the results that serve their audiences through savvy prompting, careful scrutiny of outputs and wise editing.
- This weekend, 11 people were stabbed in a Michigan Walmart. While many injuries were severe, thankfully, no one was killed, and a suspect is in custody, NPR reports. “Violence like this is unacceptable. Our thoughts are with those who were injured and we’re thankful for the swift action of first responders,” Walmart wrote in a statement to the media. They also pledged to cooperate with law enforcement in the ongoing investigation. This statement echoes Walmart’s crisis strategy for physical violence in their stores, which plays out on a tragically frequent basis. Looking back to the 2019 shooting in an El Paso Walmart that left 23 people dead and 22 others injured, we see a similar pattern in their holding statement: “We are in shock over the tragic events at the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, where Walmart store #2201 and Sam’s Club #6502 are located. We’re praying for the victims, the community and our associates, as well as the first responders who are on the scene. We’re working closely with law enforcement and will update as appropriate.” That statement was rendered in English and Spanish in a nod to the local community. The formula in these tragedies is simple and clear: Condemn the violence, express sympathy and affirm cooperation with law enforcement. Ensure you have your own holding statement prepared in case of a similar terrible incident.
Allison Carter is editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.
The post The Scoop: Astronomer makes power move by ‘very temporarily’ hiring Gwyneth Paltrow as spox appeared first on PR Daily.
