Ryan Reynolds is explaining how he pulled Gwyneth Paltrow into an ad for Astronomer just days after the tech company became the center of a Coldplay concert scandal.
Within days of the scandal involving then-Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and HR executive Kristin Cabot, the tech company dropped a tongue-in-cheek ad featuring Paltrow, once married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, as he had jokingly suspected the couple at his concert of having an "affair" for being sneaky after getting caught embracing each other on the kiss cam.
Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CMO Council Summit, Reynolds said he pitched the idea before even getting Astronomer’s approval. “Nobody knew what Astronomer does,” he said, insisting that Paltrow explaining it felt like the perfect reset.
In the PSA, she plays a “temporary spokesperson,” answering on-screen questions like “OMG! What the actual f***” by chirping that Astronomer is “the best place to run Apache Airflow.” She also joked about the sudden interest in data workflow automation and plugged an upcoming company event.
Reynolds noted that the situation created “a real opportunity for them to take the conversation away from where it was, which was quite toxic, and focus on something that mattered in a fun, easy, emotional way.”
New CEO Pete DeJoy later called the attention “surreal,” saying it unexpectedly turned Astronomer into a household name. Meanwhile, Byron has since sold his Tribeca home and relocated to Massachusetts, according to new filings.