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Outside Magazine April 2002

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The Big Idea: CASE STUDY #1: Adventure Sells
Bull Market

OF THE FIVE YOUNG MEN who eventually left Key West via kiteboard, three made it all the way to Cuba: Neil, Kent, and Fabrice. The postponement forced me to miss the launch, but I later spoke with Gilles by phone. He said that Oliver, the model, got his kite tangled and "busted" at the starting line. Paul "passed out" about halfway through the trip, falling off his board facedown in the water, arms akimbo. Gilles fished him out, apparently saving his life. I spoke to Paul, too, who said he flew back to Florida the next morning because he was peeing blood. Extreme!

All in all it was a rough ride, Gilles said, but a clear triumph. The party arrived at 6:38 p.m., after eight hours and 38 minutes on the water. The sun had set by then, and it was too dicey to kiteboard all the way to shore, so they stopped 500 feet short of Cuban sands and took the boats in. I spoke with all five of the kiteboarders and got the same story every time: They made it near land, and for them this represented success and the completion of a new world record. Since it was dark and getting dangerous, they took their kites down, got into the boats, and rode them ashore. The seas remained far too rough even for boat passage back the next day, and two people flew back with Paul. The rest stayed an extra day, then crossed by boat back to Key West over the still-windy waters, taking five and a half hours and slamming into 15-foot waves.

"Everybody was extremely silent on the way back," Gilles said. One woman bruised her ribs.

A few days later I got a press release from Red Bull, which, um, recalled things differently. It had the three kiteboarders "arriving in Cuba at 5:55 p.m., one minute before sunset." Later I got a tape of the "video news release" put together by Oceanwatch—the company responsible for documenting the event—with a few minutes of highlights, and some comments from Neil and Kent. This footage is what went out over the wires, and was picked up for use by more than 40 local news broadcasts around the country. In the video, oddly, the three kiteboarders surf all the way onto the shore and celebrate with high-fives in light that is obviously pre-sunset. The release didn't say so, but the scenes of the boarders' "arrival"—unbeknownst to the folks who used the footage in their evening news broadcasts—had been shot the following day. All of which brings us to the final lesson of murketing, which is simple: If no one is paying attention, fib.

Asked about all this, Cortes called the video release "a huge mistake not in line with our brand values." But it doesn't really matter. Whatever the facts, the truth is that any Red Bull drinkers, or potential drinkers, who might be impressed by the Cuba crossing are going to get exactly the message Red Bull wants them to get. People who are receptive to the idea that Red Bull's involvement makes the drink cool will decide that without additional prompting. Other Red Bull fans will never hear about it, or just shrug when they do, and dream up some other, murky reason to buy the next can. Hey, they won't even need to see a commercial.

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