At a Coldplay concert in Massachusetts last week, an awkward jumbotron moment turned into a full-blown internet saga. And now, it’s been immortalized in the streets of San Francisco, thanks to one runner’s GPS-fueled sense of humor.
It started at Gillette Stadium during the band’s July 16 performance, when the camera panned to a couple embracing in the crowd. Instead of leaning in for the expected kiss, they abruptly pulled away and tried to hide their faces.
From the stage, Chris Martin chuckled, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
The clip quickly made its way to TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), racking up millions of views. Within hours, online detectives had ID’d the couple: Andy Byron, the CEO of tech startup Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the company’s head of HR.
The problem? They’re both married, just not to each other.
By the next morning, the story had gone global. Byron stepped down from his role as CEO, and Cabot was reportedly placed on leave. Astronomer’s board launched an internal investigation and appointed co-founder Pete DeJoy as interim CEO. In a later interview, DeJoy admitted the scandal had put Astronomer in the public eye, though not quite in the way the company hoped. “We’re now a household name,” he said.
The moment has since taken on a life of its own.
It’s been meme-ified, parodied at sporting events, and name-dropped by other artists on tour. And now it’s been captured, quite literally, in the streets of San Francisco, thanks to local Strava artist Lenny Maughan.
Maughan, known for turning his runs into GPS “drawings”, planned a new route this week that outlines the now-infamous couple caught in the act. The image shows two faces locked in a tense embrace, their expressions unmistakably panicked. He titled it, simply, “Surprise — caught in the act.”
Though tapering for the San Francisco Marathon, Maughan ran the 15.4-kilometer portion that forms Byron’s face. The full artwork, made up of carefully plotted turns through the city’s northeast grid, lives on Strava.
Maughan has built a reputation for turning the streets into a sketchpad. He’s previously run a tiger for Lunar New Year, Frida Kahlo’s face, and even a sunflower in solidarity with Ukraine. Each route takes hours of planning, usually plotted meticulously on paper before he laces up his shoes.
The Coldplay kiss cam scandal may have cost two executives their jobs, but for the rest of us, it’s become a surreal piece of internet culture. And now, thanks to one runner with a great sense of direction and timing, it’s also a piece of street art.
