How Extreme Is Too Extreme?

Posted 2nd June 2010 in News
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You’ve got to admire the Red Bull Marketing Machine: funding extreme lifestyle projects and personalities to gain maximum PR effect.

But in the face of Shane McConkey’s death last year in Italy on a warm-up Red Bull promo video, the question arises: how extreme is too extreme for commercial purposes?

Expected to launch this summer is Red Bull’s Stratos Project. World notable stunt person Felix Baumgartner attempts the longest, highest and fastest free-fall (breaking the sound barrier), trying to break a record that has stood for 50 years. All attempts since Joe Kittinger 50 years ago have failed, many of which ended in death.

Funding the project: Red Bull.

Promotional videos suggest Felix has flying and death-defying extreme inspiration in his DNA, and that together with Red Bull and other sponsors, they deeply believe that advancing the technology to accomplish this feat will ultimately push humanity and other applications of this technology forward — even if the risk of death is high. They seem to believe there is a higher purpose.

Question: do you support such a risky endeavor OR do you espouse a more cynical view that it’s just Red Bull pushing the extreme limits of PR ?

Tell us what you think by leaving a comment below or at our Facebook Page…

4 Comments

  • Markus

    If Felix makes it, everyone wins: the company, the team, Felix, science, technology, etc…

    Why not? it’s their life and not our tax money… I say: it’s OK!

    greets from Austria.
    Markus

  • Stephen A.

    I’m thrilled to see this video because it tells me that humanity is still striving.

    The fact that stunt men have died in the past is tragic but is not new, nor is it news. I see this a greater than a mere stunt anyway, it will, by its very performance, test humanity’s ability to innovate, change, and grow.

    To indict “PR” here is an egregious libel. When PR tells us of an achievement, even when a private company is sponsoring it, it’s a useful tool, not exploitation, as is being implied.

  • Greg J.

    Seems to me PR exploitation and the innovation, growth, and change that Stephan A. talks about go hand in hand on this one.

    Pretty sure Red Bull Marketing dept. actively seeks to push the envelope to get maximum PR collateral out of all their projects: the more radical, the more PR.

    But even so… hey, if it helps them sell their product AND advances humanity, why the hell not?

    We’ll leave out the fact that these energy drinks are hella bad for your health…

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