The big Red Bull photography exhibit is being set up on the historical Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis and will open tomorrow night, July 10, at 8 p.m.

Red Bull Illume began as a quest to find the 50 best raw moments in action and adventure sports. Photography experts and esteemed photo editors from around the world served as contest judges and hand-selected 50 images from the 7,200 submissions received from photographers in over 90 countries worldwide. These astonishing images now comprise the Red Bull Illume Exhibit Tour, which honors the men and women behind the lens who have braved the planet’s harshest terrain in order to capture athletic grit and triumph. (via)

Sounds great, except that the Red Bull representative at the information booth told me that seven of the photos featured “Red Bull athletes.”  I had asked because I thought it was quite a coincidence that one of the athletes I happened to see in a photo was wearing a Red Bull cap.

Translation: There isn’t enough room for a bikes and pedestrians.
Hang on to your kids. Seriously.

I’m no fan of corporate advertising in public parks. You have to wonder who approves these projects. On June 13, Chris Stellar reported:

. . . [F]inding anyone in Minnesota with knowledge of the Red Bull Illume exhibit turned out to be more challenging than a Rubik’s cube: “Red Bull Cube” didn’t mean anything to the first dozen or so locals contacted for this article. Partly, it’s a jurisdictional problem. . . . Minneapolis city government regulates backlit signs, issues permits for events in most public rights-of-way and has an arts commission and a series of summer arts events called Minneapolis Mosaic. Then there’s the semi-autonomous Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, which oversees use of the Stone Arch Bridge, and that appears to be where Red Bull’s arrangement to install “Illume” resides, although the staffer involved wasn’t available for comment.

Park and Rec Board Commissioner Annie Young, however, said on June 14:

I do not know a thing about this action happening (or why) on the Stone Arch Bridge.

Another commissioner, Scott Vreeland, indicates that the Park and Rec Board had approved the project, and for good reason:

. . . [Red Bull exhibit is] a revenue producing art event that will provide revenue to keep the Matthews Park ice rink open next year. . . . I have been told by hundreds of people in Seward that we absolutely need to keep the Matthews ice rink in the Seward neighborhood open next year. Where do you think the money comes from to do that?

I assumed the money comes from the budget, but I guess I was wrong.

A suspicious Minneapolis cyclist makes too many trips across the
public Stone Arch Bridge and is seen here being questioned by
security: “So, you’re just going to keep riding over thie bridge all day?”

I asked the crew setting up the exhibit where the electricity to light up the cubes would come from. A crew member told me that they thought they were connecting to their own generator, but that a “park board guy” had stopped by and was wondering if they could plug into the existing light poles.

Again, I’d assume the cost of the electricity would come from the Red Bull budget, and not from the Minneapolis city budget, but as indicated, I’ve been wrong before.

Red Bull has a history of unorthodox marketing techniques, as chronicled by New York Times Magazine columnist and blogger Rob Walker in Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are:

As Red Bull gained momentum [in the United States], marketing experts jumped on the bandwagon and tried to explain its strategy. . . . [Mark Gobe, author of Emotional Branding] identified a key to Red Bull’s success in its association with exotic and risky physical feats. “Extreme sports deliver on that need to, to . . . vibrate, in a way. Red Bull is one of the first products I’ve seen that delivers on that energy.”

. . . [Al and Laura Ries wrote] “Red Bull became a powerful brand because it is perceived as a drink that improves performance especially during times of increased stress or strain, which some people take to mean sexual performance. . . .”

Others held up Red Bull as an example of a brilliant “stealth” brand, built by “brand evangelists” who stoked a “grassroots” marketing wave — “building an image for next to nothing” . . . .

. . . [However] Red Bull was spending real money. Within a few years of its first appearance in the United States — and right around the time Red Bull was first coming to the attention of marketing watchers who would praise its supposedly low-cost image-building strategy — Brandweek reported that the company was spending $100 million a year for its American “stealth” efforts. [A company spokesperson said] “the perception that these events don’t cost much to produce is good for us. . . . We don’t want to be seen as having lots of money to spend.”

Hopefully they’ve spent enough in Minneapolis so that we can keep our little Matthews Park ice rink open this winter. We all want our kids to have a good place to practice so they may one day fulfill their dreams of becoming professional corporate brand ambassadors.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Public Space. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.