It was arguably the most viral moment of the year, but while everyone saw the video, it also exposed the brutality of the digital era.
The Coldplay kiss cam that saw two people springing apart after they were seen cuddling on a giant screen has been called a “public shaming” unlike the anything ever seen before.
Andy Byron, then-Astronomer CEO, and the tech firm’s chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, were seen embracing and swaying to the music on a kiss cam at a Coldplay concert in Massachusetts in July.
When the pair realised they were visible to 66,000 people, their faces immediately turned to horror, and they appeared to jump away from each other in a bid to escape the camera’s prying eye.
“Either they’re having an affair, or they are just very shy,” Chris Martin, the band’s frontman said after witnessing the scene unfold.
A clip of the minor moment from the concert was shared online, and it instantly blew up.
Immediately, everyone wanted to know who the duo were and why they appeared so spooked.
It became a talking point on social media as well as traditional media and trickled into everyday life.
As one point, it appeared every single person in the world had seen it, with many weighing in.
Some condemned the apparent actions and others defended them.
Mr Byron resigned from his position after the footage went viral and Ms Cabot stepped down a week later. The HR boss and her husband filed for divorce a month after the incident, according to The Daily Mail.
The pair were already separated, according to reports.
One close friend claimed to People that the duo was just friends.
“There was no affair. It was inappropriate to be hugging your boss at a concert, and she accepts full responsibility for it. But the scandal, the downfall, the loss of the job – all of that is unfair,” the friend said.
Ms Cabot finally broke her silence in December about the ordeal.
“I made a bad decision and had a couple of High Noons (alcoholic seltzers) and danced and acted inappropriately with my boss,” she told the New York Times.
The Coldplay kiss cam has been called a huge ‘public shaming’. Picture: TikTok
It became worldwide news after the duo were seen cuddling at the concern. Picture: TikTok
“And it’s not nothing. And I took accountability and I gave up my career for that. That’s the price I chose to pay.”
She told the The Timesthat the backlash she got for what happened was unwarranted and that “people erased everything I’d accomplished in my life and achieved in my career”.
She said even if she had been having an affair, it was no one’s business, clarifying while both were married they were separated.
Instead, she “became a meme” and was bombarded with hateful messages as a result of the fascination with what happened to her.
“There has never been a public shaming quite like it,” Josi Ensor, a journalist from The Times, said about it.
“At least not in the social media age.”
Ms Cabot revealed she’d been labelled a homewrecker and been shouted at on the street, and in the immediate aftermath had to flee to an Airbnb.
PR expert Nicole Reaney weighed in on why it gripped people. Picture: TikTok
Ms Cabot was separated at the time of the concert. Picture: Facebook
Nicole Reaney, the CEO and founder of InsideOut PR, said it was “definitely the biggest pop culture moment of the year”.
“At the time it raked up 77 million views, it drew daily global media attention that is still garnering coverage today,” Ms Reaney told news.com.au.
“It drew so much attention in how it was comically handled. Two grown adults awkwardly ducking and weaving – it mimicked toddlers playing hide and seek – hoping they have disappeared by merely covering their eyes.”
She said there were many factors that led to it going so viral.
“There was the unexpected childlike reaction of two adults, the ‘beat-up’ by Coldplay alluding to it as an affair within its mass global touring event, the uncovering of their roles as CEO and head of People & Culture – and the repercussions of that,” she said.
“There was shock-value, and people could relate to how that moment could feel or could relate it somehow with people they know in a similar situation being caught-out. The story kept evolving, with even a celebrity cameo with Gwyneth, so it had a long shelf life in the media cycle.”
