When PR Stunts Backfire + Why AI Keeps Making Life More Complicated

What do you do when your CEO and Chief People Officer get caught canoodling—sans spouses—on a Coldplay kiss cam? If you’re Astronomer, apparently you hire Gwyneth Paltrow to crack a few jokes and hope everyone forgets.

It probably didn’t work.

In this episode of PR After Hours, Alex breaks down how a non-oppositional crisis can become an oppositional one overnight—all thanks to a tone-deaf attempt to “ride the zeitgeist.”

We’ll talk about what they should’ve done instead, why you can’t Goop your way out of bad leadership, and the simple crisis comms rule they ignored.

Then we shift gears into complexity creep—why tech, especially AI, keeps promising simplicity but somehow makes everything harder. If you’ve ever wondered why the “future of work” feels more chaotic than streamlined, this one’s for you.

🔹 PR stunts that make a mess worse
🔹 The difference between non-oppositional and oppositional crises
🔹 The one thing they should have done to end the scandal
🔹 How complexity creep is undermining AI’s big promises

Listen now for a double shot of PR lessons and a reality check on tech hype.

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This episode was recorded and mixed at Green Shebeen Studios in beautiful Kansas City, Missouri. Copyright 2025, all rights reserved. No reproduction, excerpting, or other use without written permission.We are an Amazon Associates seller, and some of our links may earn us a commission.