TV show reveals the dark side to energy drink Red Bull

A documentary of the “Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen” (ARD), which was shown on TV on Monday night, deals with the dark side of the company Red Bull. It is about risky spectacles with a deadly end.

The company Red Bull with headquarters in Salzburg produces more than five billion cans of the energy drink. Moreover, the company sponsors risky spectacles such as the jump from the stratosphere by Felix Baumgartner in October 2012.

The documentary deals with six adventurers who had a contract with Red Bull or who took part in events of the company and were killed in an accident.

One of them is the Swiss skydiver Ueli Gegenschatz who wanted to jump from the roof of a skyscraper in Zurich (Switzerland) in 2009. The event was planned to be an advert for a mobile phone tariff of Red Bull.

However, Mr Gegenschatz hit the canopy, fell onto the street and suffered from deadly brain damages.

This and further cases raise the suspicion that the adventurers could have risked too much under pressure. It remains unclear whether the principal Red Bull is directly responsible. The company did not contribute to the documentary and refused every request of ARD to give an interview.

However, Red Bull did comment on the documentary yesterday afternoon: “Motivation and direction of this TV show were completely obvious from the start, which is why we renounced from conversations with the producers.

“It should be clear for everyone, who knows how the media work and for those who know us, that the accusations are groundless”, Red Bull stated.