Jack Tame: The Coldplay kiss cam and what it reveals about human nature

In the end it was only a matter of time.  

It took a day or two of virality for the CEO caught cheating in the now truly infamous Coldplay kiss cam to publicly announce his departure from the company. I’m frankly surprised it took much longer for the woman caught canoodling in his arms to do the same thing. She was, after all, the Chief People Officer for the same company. On top of what I can only imagine is a personal calamity, the incident strikes me as a fairly grave professional conflict of interest. Indeed, the company that employed them both has announced that she is now gone, too. 

I’m not gonna pretend to be all high and mighty. Like however many hundreds of millions or billions of people around the World, I found myself titillated by the video. It’s so dumb. So clumsy. Perfect fodder for a viral sensation. 

But in the last few days, as the stories have continued, I’ve also found myself thinking a bit more about what the whole thing says about us more generally.  

As consumers and sharers of information on the internet, loling, liking, and sharing, there is no way for us to collectively manage a degree of proportionality in a viral screw-up. 

They did the deed and they can suffer the consequences, you might argue. Sure, but at the same time, these people didn’t commit a crime. They have been dishonest, absolutely. Unprofessional? For sure. But while I don’t want to be too much of a downer, I can only imagine that right now, it feels like the price they’ve each paid is the complete and absolute destruction of their entire lives. And even if you do think that in this instance they deserve the consequences whatever they might be, what’s to say you’ll feel the same way the next time someone goes viral? There is no controlling the wildfire. And once it’s shared and shared and shared again, the scale of a viral humiliation compounds faster than at any point in human history.   

And how about their families? Would you want to find out your husband or partner or parent was cheating? Most of us might say yes, painful as it might be, that truth in that situation is for the best. But what if it meant a fifth of the world’s population found out at the same time? What if it meant every student at your kids’ school knew what had happened and would bring it up for the next twenty years.   

Again, I’m not being miserable and saying it wasn’t funny. It was funny! My point is that once a moment like this hits the internet, there is absolutely no controlling it. And there’s a little sliver of this whole saga that has felt a bit Black Mirror. 

A few years ago, I read that amazing book, ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’, by Jon Ronson.

It had some extraordinary examples of people who’d gone viral for saying or doing really dumb, offensive things. But it also articulated something primal, something a bit ugly, a hunger in as a species to hunt as a pack, and the collective glee we take in casting someone aside and making an example of them in public.   

No policy, no force on Earth can stop a viral moment. It just has to burn out. There is no firebreak, no finger in the dyke. That video will have been viewed by eyeballs in every country and on every continent. But while that video said a lot about human nature, arguably its spread around the world has said just as much. Are you not entertained? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at Me.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
In the end, it was only a matter of time, right.
It took a day or two maybe of virality for
the CEO Court cheating in the now truly infamous coldplay
kiss cam to publicly announce his departure from his company,
and frankly, I'm surprised it took much longer for the
woman Court canoodling in his arms to do the same thing.

(00:36):
She was, after all, the chief people officer, the head
of HR for the same company. And on top of
what I can only imagine is a personal calamity, the
incident strikes me as a fairly grave professional conflict of interest. Indeed,
the company that employed them both has now announced that
she's gone too. Now, I'm not gonna pretend to be

(01:00):
all high and mighty with this, right, I certainly have
not taken any high moral ground or moral high ground.
But like however, many millions or tens of millions, or
hundreds of millions or billions of people around the world,
I found myself titillated by the video. It's just so dumb,
It's so clumsy, right, so perfect for a viral sensation.

(01:26):
All that being said, in the last few days, as
the stories have continued, I've also found myself thinking a
bit more about what the whole thing says about us
more generally. Right, as consumers and sharers of information on
the internet, lolling, liking, sharing, there's no way for us

(01:50):
to collectively manage a degree of proportionality when it comes
to viral videos, and when it comes to a viral
screw up, you know what I mean, Like, they did
the deed and they can suffer the consequences. You might argue, sure,
But at the same time, these people didn't commit a crime. Right.

(02:12):
They've been dishonest, absolutely, They've been unprofessional, absolutely. But while
I don't want to be too much of a downer,
I can only imagine that right now it feels like
the price they have each paid is the complete and
absolute destruction of their entire lives. Okay, And even if
you think that in this instance they deserve the consequences,

(02:35):
whatever they might be, what's to say that you'll feel
the same way the next time someone goes viral. My
point is just that there's no controlling the wildfire, and
once it's shared and shared and shared, and shared again.
The scale of a viral humiliation compounds faster than at
any point in human history. And you know what about

(02:59):
their families. Would you want to find out your husband
or partner or parent was cheating. Most of us might
say yes, painful as it might be, that truth in
that situation is for the best. But what if it
meant a fifth of the world's population found out at
the same time. What if it meant every student at
your kid's school knew what had happened and would bring

(03:20):
it up for the next twenty years, you might feel
slightly differently. Again, I'm not being miserable and saying it
wasn't funny. It was funny, Okay. My point is that
once a moment like this hits the Internet, there's just
no controlling it. There's like a little sliver of this

(03:43):
whole saga that has felt a little bit black mirror
to me. It's funny. A few years ago I read
that amazing book by John Ronson, So You've been publicly
Shamed It's called And it had some extraordinary examples of
people who had gone viral for saying or doing really dumb,
offensive things. But it also articulated something primal, something a

(04:05):
bit ugly, a hunger in US as a species, to
kind of hunt as a pack, and the kind of
collective glee we take in casting someone aside and making
an example of them in public. There is no policy,
There is no force on earth that can stop a

(04:27):
viral moment. It just has to burn out, right, there's
no firebreak, there's no finger in the dike. That video
will have been viewed by eyeballs in every country and
on every continent. But while it's said a lot about
human nature, arguably it's spread around the world has said

(04:49):
just as much. Are you not entertained?

Speaker 1 (04:52):
For more? From Saturday Morning with Jack Tame? Listen live
to Newstalks B from nine am Saturday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.