At the moment where Baumgartner is spinning out of control I couldn’t help thinking about Red Bull’s marketing team.
There is no doubt that Red Bull had done everything in their power to make sure that this world record breaking event went off with out a hitch. That all safety measures and possible eventualities were covered. But you still have to think there is a fair amount of courage required both by Felix Baumgartner and Red Bull. The stakes here were very high; absolute success or absolute failure.
It was a big risk and it has paid off big time for Red Bull. 8 million viewers streamed it live on youtube – that’s got to be a record too. I had no idea it was coming but I woke up to it on every station on the TV, radio, the front page of the paper and on Facebook with friends shrieking their amazement. The people commenting on the article in the SMH even likened it to man landing on the moon?
The Space program (and hence forth the moon landing) only became possible because daredevils like Chuck Yeager continuously pushed the limits of what was technically and humanly impossible at the time.
– SMH October 15, 2012, 8:44AM
Glad it worked out well. I don’t think we’ll be sending men to the moon on balloons, but it did achieve world wide media coverage money can’t buy.
Read more here
You can also see the Gruen Planet panel discuss the stunt here.
