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A line chart that tracks readership of news stories about an astronomer from July 17 to 21, 2025. Readership peaked at 63.6 million on July 18, dropped to 22.9 million on July 19, and reached its lowest at 4.5 million on July 20 before slightly rising to 5.1 million on July 21.

Readership of news stories about Astronomer

Over the course of five days, roughly 1,400 news articles about Astronomer drove more than 125 million readers, according to Memo data shared with Axios.

Driving the news: Readership peaked around 60 million on July 18, two days after CEO Andy Byron and chief people officer Kristin Cabot were cast across the Jumbotron at a Coldplay concert.

Plus, much of the chatter continued to live on social media. 

The video first spread on TikTok, racking up 125.8 million views.  

The saga was mentioned in roughly 850,000 posts on X, 13,000 Facebook posts, 6,000 Instagram posts, 3,000 TikToks and 2,300 Reddit posts, according to data from PeakMetrics. 

Between the lines: The virality across social media led to the publication of fake statements, creation of phony accounts and an uptick in trendjacking brand campaigns. 

This created a fake narrative that Astronomer was forced to beat back. 

What they're saying: "This is not a real statement."

That was the first comment from an Astronomer spokesperson, in an attempt to debunk the parody statements that were catching wind on social media.

Fake Coldplay post that went viral on X. Screenshot: @MikeBeauvais/X

Zoom in: A fake apology from Byron, a fake statement from the company and a fake X post from Coldplay all went viral on Thursday, less than 24 hours after the concert.

These fake statements generated more chatter across social media, with many not realizing — or caring about — their inauthenticity.

Across X, there were roughly 6,600 posts that mentioned Byron and the fake apology letter, per PeakMetrics.

While the phony Byron and Astronomer statements have been removed, the Coldplay fake still lives on and has received roughly 10 million views.

Another conspiracy theory floating around online was that a concert-goer seen laughing alongside Cabot on the jumbotron was another member of Astronomer's HR team.

In its official response, Astronomer sought to clear up all of the misinformation, stating that "no other employees were in the video" and that Byron "[had] not put out any statement, reports saying otherwise are all incorrect."

Zoom out: Aside from taking heat from internet sleuths and keyboard commentators, Cabot and Byron were also meme-ified by brand social media accounts looking to leverage the scandal for clicks.

StubHub, Netflix, Paramount, Ryanair and Tesla all poked fun or created memes.

Meanwhile, at sporting events across the country, audience members recreated the Coldplay moment and teams like the Philadelphia Phillies joined in.

The bottom line: "Without an immediate response from the comms team, that fake statement became a perceived source of truth," Nick Loui, co-founder and CEO of PeakMetrics, said in a statement.

"It was clipped, reshared, reframed across platforms, and even picked up by some mainstream news coverage before it was debunked. Once this kind of content takes off and isn't quickly corrected, it becomes incredibly difficult to unwind."

The modern crisis communications playbook

Case study: How Astronomer handled misinformation during kiss cam scandal

Roughly 1,400 news articles have driven more than 125 million readers, according to Memo data.

Social Media

Over the course of five days, roughly 1,400 news articles about <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Astronomer" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2025/07/18/coldplay-kiss-cam-astronomer" data-vars-content-id="3eac2829-f2f5-4079-b156-efcb98d2bec0" data-vars-headline="Case study: How Astronomer handled misinformation during kiss cam scandal" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2025/07/18/coldplay-kiss-cam-astronomer" target="_self">Astronomer</a> drove more than 125 million readers, according to Memo data shared with Axios.Driving the news: Readership peaked around 60 million on July 18, two days after CEO Andy Byron and chief people officer Kristin Cabot were cast across the Jumbotron at a Coldplay concert.

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Case study: How Astronomer handled misinformation during kiss cam scandal

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