“Kiss Cam” at the Coldplay concert: Image cultivation with Gwyneth Paltrow

Ryan Reynolds , of course! Who else would come up with such a crazy, yet precisely for that reason ingenious idea—and have the resources to implement it within a few days, maybe even hours? It requires a tremendous amount of commitment, effort, and effort. How fitting that Reynolds' company for this PR stunt is Maximum Effort , and so Gwyneth Paltrow can add another to her portfolio of job titles (actress, Goop founder, investor, podcast guru): temporary spokesperson for Astronomer. "Thanks to the team at Maximum Effort for the remarkable work with our extraordinary temporary spokesperson," wrote the new Astronomer CEO, Pete DeJoy, on his LinkedIn profile.

A quick reminder for all those who have spent the last few weeks under a rock: The now-defunct Astronomer boss Andy Byron and the now-defunct Astronomer HR manager Kristin Cabot were seen tightly embraced on the big screen during the Coldplay concert in Boston - Martin commented on her shock at this: "Either they are having an affair, or they are very shy." It was probably the former, and as is the case in the age of shitstorms: There was a hail of malice and spite about #kisscamgate , columnist debates about the ultimate end of privacy - and the planned lawsuit by Byron against Coldplay for emotional cruelty.

Hardly anyone asked: And what about Astronomer? Most asked: What on earth is Astronomer, anyway? The answer: the one with the kiss-cam couple. The day after the video went public, more than 1.4 million people visited the company's website; an increase of 15,000 percent over the previous day. "We're suddenly on everyone's lips," said DeJoy. He emphasized that it was happening for all the wrong reasons: "We never wanted it to happen this way—but now the spotlight is brightly on us." So what to do?

On Friday evening, the company published a 60-second video on the X platform, which has since been viewed by more than 36 million users and has spread about as rapidly as the kiss-cam video from the Coldplay concert. "Thank you for your interest in Astronomer," says Paltrow, who was married to Martin from 2003 to 2016. She wants to answer the most frequently asked questions of the past few days on behalf of the more than 300 Astronomer employees. The focus isn't on the kiss-cam moment, however, but rather on what a great company Astronomer is and that there are still tickets available for an upcoming conference.

"Pretty clever," says Jordan Greenaway, head of the PR firm Profile, about the combination of humor and the perfect protagonist, which is nothing new: In March 2014 , then-US President Barack Obama allowed himself to be mercilessly grilled by comedian Zach Galifianakis in his fake interview series "Between Two Ferns." He did this because the Obamacare website had been working poorly for six months beforehand, and Obama was allowed to promote it in a self-deprecating appearance. Or football star Rob Gronkowski, who played on his simpleton image and, at the height of the "Tide Pod Challenge" in 2017 (teenagers filmed themselves biting into dishwasher tablets), said in a company advertisement that not even he was stupid enough to eat the things. And of course, household goddess Martha Stewart, who has been playing with her supposed gangsta image since her prison sentence for insider trading and has thus initiated numerous projects with rap legend Snoop Dogg.

This can also go horribly wrong. Host Ellen DeGeneres, for example, included several jokes, many of them about herself, in her apology following revelations about the hostile work environment at her production company. The verdict: insensitive, inappropriate to the seriousness of the subject matter, more ruin than repair.

The advantage of Astronomer, according to Greenaway, is that "you don't have to beat around the bush; the scandal has nothing to do with the core business or the quality of the product." Nor is it self-deprecating, like the legendary Volkswagen advertisement in the 1960s that called the Beetle a "Lemon," a piece of junk: "Astronomer doesn't char quality, but ultimately the resigned boss."

The genius of the video is that Maximum Effort managed to pull it off in such a short time – with Paltrow, whose schedule must be one of the busiest. That's Reynolds's achievement. He is known for having one of the most stable networks in Hollywood. And he has a penchant for self-deprecation – see the current documentary series "Welcome to Wrexham," in which he passionately plays the clueless football fan who, thanks to his wealth, has fulfilled his dream of buying a British professional club and leading it to the second division . "Thanks for your interest, Astronomer," read a Maximum Effort post on X on Sunday – which also contained self-promotion. Everyone should benefit; Spotify views of Coldplay songs also increased by 25 percent after the video . "We're now back to what we do best: films with Hugh Jackman , fastvertising, and Wrexham football."

That was a final, double-message nod to Paltrow: Fastvertising is the term for what Maximum Effort ultimately did—reacting quickly to current events to increase a brand's value. At the end of the video, Gwyneth Paltrow, as her final act as Astronomer spokesperson, says precisely this sentence: "We're now back to doing what we do best." She also, of course, explains exactly what that is. But that won't be repeated here. Fastvertising isn't quite that simple.