Coldplay kiss cam scandal spoofs: From major league baseball to local charities

The Penthouse Nightclub in Vancouver was one of the first local entities to parody the now-viral Coldplay kisscam moment. (Credit: x.com/ThePenthouse604)

The viral moment a tech CEO was caught on camera at a Coldplay concert embracing someone who wasn’t his wife has inspired countless memes. In B.C., a gentleman’s club, a university performing arts venue and an animal rescue are among those getting in on the action.

While performing in Boston, lead singer Chris Martin asked the cameras to scan the crowd for his “Jumbotron Song,” when he sings a few lines about the people the camera lands on.

“Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” he joked.

It turned out he was right about the affair.

In Vancouver, the first local business to use the moment as fodder was the Penthouse Nightclub, a downtown strip club known for using its clever use of its marquee – from crafting cheeky puns to commenting on current events.

“Don’t worry guys, Coldplay isn’t here” the sign read in the hours after the scandal broke.

“Chris Martin, you’re banned,” said a social media post accompanying the photo.

For Laina Tanahara, a marketing and communications manager at a very different venue, the meme-able moment offered the perfect opportunity to post something fun to social media on Friday.

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, located on the campus of the University of British Columbia, hosts events ranging from classical and jazz concerts to author appearances to children’s summer camps.

A post on Facebook and Instagram promising to “never out your affair” seemed like a no-brainer for Tanahara, who said she’s surprised that she hasn’t seen other venues in the city seize the opportunity.

“The response has been great,” she said. “People thought it was really, really funny. I was really pleased.”

She did note that she used a photo of herself in the post, not wanting to risk implying someone else was having an affair by using their image.

“I thought that would be safest,” she said.

The co-founder of a rescue for farm animals that have been abandoned abused or surrendered didn’t see the posts from the Penthouse or the Chan Centre, but he did see a clip of a Major League Baseball game that inspired him.

The Philadelphia Phillies renamed their kiss cam the “Coldplay Cam” and panned to the team’s mascot embracing a female “Phenatic” before reenacting the reaction at the centre of the viral video.

Steven Wiltshire, who runs Happy Herds Farms Sanctuary, says something about that moment made him think of the animals in his care.

So, he turned to AI, asking it to use images of one of the rescue’s cows and one of its pigs to recreate the moment.

“It just looked like a meme that was going to take off and I thought we’d take advantage of it and make a funny post,” he said.

“It was worth doing, it got some good engagement.”