Did Astronomer’s Gwyneth Paltrow stunt work?
At the weekend, tech company Astronomer turned to Gwyneth Paltrow in the wake of the recent Coldplay kiss cam scandal to “address” frequently asked questions.
And we turned to a range of industry professionals to see if it worked.
In the 60-second promotional video, created by Ryan Reynolds’ production house Maximum Effort, Paltrow says she was hired on a “very temporary basis” as its spokesperson, thanking people for their “interest” in Astronomer.
The Goop CEO and ex-wife of Coldplay’s Chris Martin doesn’t exactly address the questions everyone is asking, however. Instead she takes the opportunity to tell people what Astronomer is and what it offers to customers.
As of publication, the video has amassed over 36 million views on X alone.
Thank you for your interest in Astronomer. pic.twitter.com/WtxEegbAMY
— Astronomer (@astronomerio) July 25, 2025
Here, leading PR and crisis communications experts weigh in on the company’s approach to crisis management, and if the stunt has paid off.
Patrice Pandeleos, managing director of Seven Communications:
Gwyneth Paltrow’s move to join Astronomer as an advisor may seem like an unlikely match at first glance, but in reality, it’s a masterclass in modern brand alignment.
For Astronomer, whose focus is on making data orchestration more accessible and relevant, tapping into Paltrow’s mainstream cultural cachet is a way to humanise and popularise a space that has traditionally been seen as highly technical. It reframes data as something not just for engineers, but for innovators and positions Astronomer as a brand unafraid to do things differently.
From a PR and crisis communications perspective, it’s a high-risk, high-reward play. Paltrow is polarising — her association with Goop and wellness pseudoscience often draws criticism, so aligning with her could raise eyebrows in Silicon Valley. But she also commands an enormous audience and has a proven ability to spark conversation. If Astronomer’s goal is attention and disruption, they’ve nailed the brief. The challenge now will be in clearly articulating how Paltrow’s involvement is more than just celebrity sizzle, otherwise the move could be dismissed as gimmickry.
Ultimately, it’s a headline-grabbing choice that invites scrutiny – and that may be exactly what Astronomer wants. In a crowded tech landscape, attention is currency. The key now is to show substance behind the splash.
Jasmin Hyde, founder of Hyde & Seek Communications:
Gwyneth Paltrow stepping in to front Astronomer’s crisis response wasn’t just celebrity for celebrity’s sake. It was a bold, high-gloss strategic recalibration that gave people something new to talk about, and it … worked.
In a sea of sterile apologies and vanilla holding statements, the move was cheeky, unexpected, and tonally spot-on. While it wasn’t quite a masterclass in reputation recovery — the messaging delivered by Paltrow raised more questions about Astronomer’s offering than it answered — it proved that well-timed surprise can reset a conversation entirely.
And frankly, it was probably the only thing that could’ve worked after Astronomer’s radio silence in the critical days post-incident. Hats off to their PR engine for turning it around somewhat.
Leilani Abels, founder and CEO of Thrive PR:
Much has been debated on crisis management regarding Astronomer, but it is the internal and external communications strategy moving forward that will ensure the brand’s reputation recovery, shifting the latest ‘spokesperson’ move by Maximum Effort and Astronomer from gimmick to genius.
The genius is not in the creative ideation and or the stunt, choosing Chris Martin’s ex-wife to be Astronomer’s temporary spokesperson. The genius is in the female voice of empowerment that Astronomer has inadvertently leaned into when appointing Gwyneth Paltrow.
Paltrow has 8.4 million Instagram followers and her wellness e-commerce business Goop attracts almost one million unique visitors per month. Her audience across platforms is 75% female, Gen X, affluent, many are single and interested in holistic health, design and lifestyle. The last thing Astronomer can afford to do is further humiliate the victims of this story, in particular the wife of the former CEO, and although Astronomer continues to walk a tightrope with brand reputation management, they have positively galvanised a very powerful audience — women.
The ultimate win in influencer relations/talent ambassadorship is a genuine win-win partnership so what’s also unique in the spokesperson choice, is Paltrow’s own motivation. She does not need fame or fortune, so what’s in it for her? She runs an e-commerce tech company that is Goop. The educational and entertaining content piece has given her own brand and Goop an injection of cultural currency that money can’t buy.
In addition, she’s turned the spotlight on herself with tech investors and VCs globally. Cultural relevance, data and technology credibility is what matters to her, not the dollar figure on the contract from Maximum Effort and Astronomer.
Astronomer has just written the playbook in influencer engagement. Let’s hope that its current marketing hype has not meant that a broader communications strategy including internal communications, has been forgotten.
The genuine opportunity is to leverage the spokesperson for co-worker engagement and advocacy, turning employee angst into pride and allowing for a much needed culture reset. Given the values of Astronomer remain under question, it is a true test to their communications capability.
Let’s see how genuine and strategic their approach really is.
Robyn Sefiani, president ANZ, Reputation Counsel, and Clarity Global Crisis Council at Sefiani, part of Clarity Global:
While not forgetting the personal, human cost of this crisis for the families involved, by deploying Gwyneth Paltrow, the crisis in which Astronomer has been embroiled closes on a positive, rather than a negative note.
Could humour be the new go-to approach for companies emerging from a crisis and rebuilding reputation?
Unlikely, but it works well for Astronomer because it’s a small, privately owned B2B tech startup. It’s not publicly traded, has no retail investors, and doesn’t rely on consumers who might choose to boycott its products or services.
It also works for Astronomer because the company was drawn into a crisis with global attention because the two executives involved have now both resigned, drawing a line in the sand to the incident that captivated millions.
Had the CEO and HR executive disclosed their relationship to their employer in line with normal company policy? We will never know. But one would assume that Astronomer’s heavyweight institutional investors like JP Morgan, Salesforce Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures will want reassurance from the new leadership team, that good culture, clear disclosure policies and good governance are now firmly in place.
Astronomer has possibly set a new world record for triggering and closing down a global crisis in exactly one week.
Sally Branson, founder and director of SBCG:
It’s a genius crisis management move. The board has already given a statement about the issue. They did that last week, but it was a very dry, very legally safe statement, and probably didn’t reach the demographic that it really needed to change the narrative. At first, I wondered if it was a satire following all of the other “fake news” satire responses that followed last week. And normally, questioning if a crisis response was satire would be a response red flag. In this instance though, it was all a part of the genius of the response.
Astronomer was no obligation to release this sort of response, but that they did speaks to the values of the brand as a disruptor, as a startup brand to go really amplify their crisis response and in turn disrupt crisis response itself.
A, it would’ve cost them a fortune. What startup can really afford someone like Gwyneth Paltrow to be their temporary spokesperson? IT breaks all conventions.
B, One of the reasons that it is effective is because it seems like a simple response to a crisis, just a little video. They’re matching the market where the original video went viral, and where their audience aim is. It’s got the capability to go viral because it is a viral reaction and includes the perfect and very high profile person spearheading their response.
For all intents and purposes, it is a simple video response but actually it is a very, very complex response. The reason it works is it’s many layers of nuance. It works for Astronomer, but it can’t work for many other brands.
As the CEO of a startup disruptor brand, and all throughout her career as a CEO of Goop, Paltrow has herself been the topic of ridicule and divisive conversation. She comes to this “temporary spokesperson” as an authority in space of disruption and reputation divisiveness.
Additionally, she is Chris Martin’s ex-wife. Together, whilst separating they coined the term ‘conscious uncoupling’, which then became part of the lexicon and the vernacular of people talking about getting divorced. And to be frank, if you’ve cheated with your HR manager or CEO, that’s obviously a conversation you are having in real time, with real life consequences and plays to the “there but by the grace of god go I” conversations many in leadership positions would be thinking.
The other nuance to this response is this is how Paltrow works in her own business life, not only does she do brand collabs often, she does a lot of these ‘ask me anything’ on her platforms. It is a marketing tools and as a “spokesperson” she’s very used to being in this situation, a Instagram ‘ask me anything’ meets the demographic that caused the original video to go viral. And actually talking about the brand, it was the first time I understood what Astronomer actually do!
But the one thing that I want to make clear is this is a one-shot wonder. This only works because of all of those complexities. The reality, this video was not made for their key stakeholders. This was not speaking to them, this was repairing broader reputation damage. The type that skews SEO forever. I’m sure behind the scenes that the brand is doing their true crisis response and stakeholder management to the audiences that actually matter to the business (income stream, industry media, investors) This video was not a must to, but it was an of the moment moon shot that worked.
Phoebe Netto, managing director of Pure Public Relations:
This is not a response from the crisis communications handbook — it’s even better. To bounce back from such a sensational, unique, and viral controversy, Astronomer needed to do something equally as unique and memorable.
The company understood that when you become a cultural phenomenon overnight, traditional damage control simply won’t cut it. They needed to create another cultural moment that gets people talking, one that walks the fine line between humour, entertainment, and not appearing as though they’re trying to sweep things under the rug or create a transparent diversion of ‘nothing to see here’.
It was a stroke of genius to secure Gwyneth Paltrow, whose response to the situation as it happened played a huge part in making this moment so memorable in the first place. The connections here are comically meta, which is precisely why it worked so well. This wasn’t a bad move for Paltrow either. It demonstrates she has a sense of humour, which for someone who’s become known for her quirky, often out-of-touch approach to health and wellness, makes her appear considerably more human and entertaining.
What made the execution work for Astronomer was the questions that appeared on screen. Although Paltrow amusingly didn’t answer a single question relevant to the controversy, it still showed that the company is acutely aware of what people were thinking. Meanwhile, Gwenyth’s recitation of technical jargon about their offering signals to clients and investors that they are getting back to ‘business as usual’ and are focused on doing what they do best.
But whilst this was a masterful move from Astronomer, it absolutely does not replace the need for real answers to their stakeholders. The social media masses will enjoy this spectacle and quickly move on, but there are still genuine consequences and concerns from Astronomer’s private investors, staff, and both current and potential future clients. They need to reassure these stakeholders of their governance, their stability, and their ability to remain focused without having their work impacted by distractions. They need to demonstrate their capabilities when it comes to their core offering, competency, and performance. What will the new ‘business as usual’ look like now that both the CEO and Head of HR at the centre of this scandal have resigned? Can stakeholders trust that their work won’t be impacted, now or in the future? These are the questions that still need answering. But now that the public has been given a bone, they are closer to being able to exclusively focus on a tighter group of stakeholders.
Astronomer is currently capitalising on all this attention rather than retreating from it. While matching the shock, humour, and entertainment value of the original controversy with another viral moment is undeniably smart, they need to be mindful not to create an expectation that this is now how they’ll be operating, because they simply cannot sustain this level of cultural theatre. They’ve taken the cultural phenomenon they quickly became and subverted it into an exit strategy. Now, it’s crucial that they step back and focus on a more traditional approach from the world of crisis PR: communicating clearly and directly with their stakeholders.
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Lauren McNamara was the associate editor at Mumbrella. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS. She left Mumbrella in August 2025.
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topics
Astronomer
Chris Martin
Coldplay
Coldplaygate
crisis communications
Gwyneth Paltrow
Jasmin Hyde
Leilani Abels
Patrice Pandeleos
Phoebe Netto
PR
PR stunt
Robyn Sefiani
Sally Branson
Never really loved Gwyneth, this has definitely changed my tune
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