MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Let's spend a moment now on the aftermath of the kiss that went viral this month - the couple caught on camera canoodling at a Coldplay concert. The two people involved were the CEO and head of HR at a tech firm called Astronomer. They have both since resigned, leaving the company to pick up the pieces of this PR nightmare. Now, what that looks like started to take shape over the weekend when Astronomer took to social media with a new ad.
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GWYNETH PALTROW: Hi. I'm Gwyneth Paltrow. I've been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer.
KELLY: Yeah, this was a very big wink to viewers because Gwyneth Paltrow is the ex-wife of the lead singer of Coldplay, Chris Martin. I want to bring in crisis PR specialist Molly McPherson. And I'll start with the obvious question - your reaction as a PR professional to this Paltrow ad?
MOLLY MCPHERSON: Even though I work in crisis PR, I did not find this to be a crisis management strategy. I felt it was more out of Central Casting. I know a lot of people think that they like it, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't like the response.
KELLY: Why?
MCPHERSON: Because what it overshadows is what they're deflecting from in the first place. People can get caught up in humor. People love the viral ad of it all. But there's a lot of PR deflection that's happening because in the beginning we have two people from a company, a CEO and its chief people officer - both of them were having a relationship. That's the problem. And the interim CEO has turned it into a spoof.
KELLY: So you're saying this is a distraction, maybe a clever distraction, but it doesn't solve the issue and the questions people may have about the company?
MCPHERSON: Exactly, Mary Louise. PR deflection isn't new. It happens all the time. It's something that can be used in humorous ways. We've seen other politicians do this in the past - Barack Obama, George W. Bush. And it has worked when you can poke fun. But what they're trying to do here is deflect.
KELLY: Could it be part of a one-two step punch? You know, let's deflect. Let's let people lose interest, move on a little bit, while we're working on some of the underlying challenges?
MCPHERSON: I don't think so, and here's the reason why. In the middle of this viral aftermath, the interim CEO, who's the cofounder of the company, immediately made a statement that said, in part, that we are, you know, leveraging this kind of viral moment that happened for us. We'd never imagined that our name would be like this. And then continued and doubled down by hiring a company to create a viral ad. Ryan Reynolds is behind that company. Also in the play is Gwyneth Paltrow. There's a biography coming about her as well. So I don't think this is just PR deflection on the part of Astronomer. I also think it's Ryan Reynolds and Gwyneth Paltrow as well.
KELLY: I'm thinking of the old maxim that all publicity is good publicity. It sounds like, in this case, you're not convinced.
MCPHERSON: Well, it depends on the definition of publicity. If you're getting a lot of people on social media and TikTok talking about it, sure. Everyone knows the name.
KELLY: You and I are sitting here talking about Astronomer, which I can guarantee we would not have been doing a month ago.
MCPHERSON: I agree with you, Mary Louise. No one was talking about Astronomer. But I still say, for every person talking about that ad, I would ask a follow-up question - what does Astronomer do, and what do they do for you? So it all comes down to sales and if it will help them down the road. And I'm not sure it will.
KELLY: Molly McPherson, thank you so much.
MCPHERSON: Thank you.
KELLY: You can also hear her on her "PR Breakdown" podcast.
(SOUNDBITE OF VITAMIN STRING QUARTET'S "VIVA LA VIDA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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