Oh Katy, what on earth (literally) were you thinking?!

Last week, the Roar singer embarked on a 10-minute space trip with Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space tourism company. It’s fair to say the PR stunt, which also included TV host Gayle King and Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sanchez, has sparked global outrage amongst celebrities, charities and, well… everyone really.

The space trip was intended to celebrate its all-female crew and the symbolic breaking of gender barriers in space exploration. Katy Perry took a daisy up with her (crucial for any flight) and spent a lot of time looking into the camera rather than out of the window at Earth from above. She also treated the crew to a performance of “What a Wonderful World” in a bid to highlight the beauty and fragility of our planet.

Back on Earth, however, the crew received quite the crash landing, as a whirlwind of criticism, fury and memes quickly brewed. And many people are asking: how is it possible that no managers, agents or PRs suggested, “Perhaps this isn’t the best idea”?

Here’s a summary of why it was the worst PR stunt since Kendall Jenner opened a can of Pepsi to end a riot.

Katy Perry is a former UNICEF climate champion. Despite claims of being relatively clean and that the rocket only produced water vapour (which scientists say isn’t actually possible), emissions produced by any rocket still contribute to global warming.

Model and actor Emily Ratajkowski took to social media:

“You say that you care about Mother Earth, and it’s about Mother Earth, and you’re going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that’s single-handedly destroying the planet,” she added. “Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space. For what?”

With tariffs, wars and general economic uncertainty, the consensus is that the money spent on the Blue Origin flight could’ve been better spent elsewhere, that it was highly insensitive given the current climate, and a ‘joyride for the super-rich’.

It’s not known how much it cost, but in 2021, a seat on Blue Origin’s first crewed flight was auctioned for $28 million – and that’s without any celebrity fees.

In an interview, actor Olivia Munn said of the flight, “It’s so much money to go to space, and there are a lot of people who can’t even afford eggs.”

It felt as if no one had taken the time to brief Perry. Of her 10-minute flight, she described it as “supernatural” and likened it to becoming a mother after kissing the Earth for a picture.

Prior to the flight, she also said, “I’ve always been interested in astrophysics and interested in astronomy and astrology and the stars. We are all made of stardust, and we all come from the stars.”

As the most famous person on the flight, Perry has taken the biggest hit—looking tone deaf and insensitive—while her critics appear in touch with the real world and have come out laughing…