After events of this weekend past,
I’m thinking Red Bull’s likability may have slipped—at least a bit.
And, I’m guessing Red Bull’s marketing department is breathing into a paper bag,
Just to stop the hyperventilation.
Let me tell you about it.

Red Bull is heavily into motorsports—so heavy that the company owns its own Formula 1 team.
Now picture yourself the head of Red Bull marketing and PR.
Your Red Bull team, this season, has the fastest cars,
Your Red Bull team has two talented—and marketable—drivers.
Your Red Bull team has, this year, better than an even chance of winning the championship.
And this weekend, your Red Bull team is racing at the prestigious British Grand Prix.

Now understand this,
Formula 1 is competitive—expensively so.
To stay ahead of the competition—Red Bull, for the British Grand Prix, fit a new part to each of its two cars.
Parts that make their fast cars even faster.
During a practice session, one of those new parts falls off the car—the one driven by a fellow named Vettel.
And there is no spare.
Except, that is, for the one affixed to the other car—the one driven by a fellow named Webber.

Before the race, management removes the part from Webber’s car and affixes it to Vettel’s machine.
In a sport where team evenhandedness and driver equality is a given, management’s maneuver is deemed a major faux pas.
Cries of favouritism, demands for explanation, and accusations of back-room politics arise from the sporting press, the rabid fan-base and the F1 community.
Webber is livid. Vettel attempts a low profile.
And Red Bull—the team with the best car, the coolest profile, and the championship in sight—is left spluttering weak-kneed explanations, and self-suffering denials.
How could it go so wrong?

Ah, but wait.
It gets worse.
During the race, Webber (the one who had the part confiscated) channels his fury and his focus to snatch—with a bold, brave move—the lead from Vettel.
Vettel (the recipient of the go-fast part) tries to defend and instead damages a tire.
He limps to the pits, and drops to last place.
Ultimately, Webber wins the race, and Vettel nets a seventh place finish.
Cries of poetic justice, instant karma, or just good old Aussie straight-dealing (Webber’s an Australian) emanate from the sporting press, the rabid fan-base, and the F1 community.
Leaving Red Bull—the team, and the drinks company—with a somewhat tarnished reputation.
How could it go so wrong?

But wait a minute,
Because, believe it or not,
It gets worse.
That spare part, the one that Red Bull management removed from Webber’s car.
Do you know what it was?
In a scene so tragic if it wasn’t so hilarious, so Kafkaesque if it wasn’t so true;
That spare part was, in fact…
…A wing—a wing that hangs so visibly from the front of an F1 car.

And now, thanks to a major management blunder,
Across the internet, addenda have been added to the now-infamous tagline.

Red Bull Gives you Wings…
…But only if your name is Vettel
…But then takes them away again
…Even if they’re not quite the same
…But only after it takes them from someone else

All of which makes me wonder if those Red Bull marketing and PR types are crying in their beer (or their Red Bull) tonight.

Ideas? Suggestions? Questions? Please leave a comment.

Bob Dylan said it more than 40 years ago, the times they are a-changin’

(And yes, I’m aware this is the second consecutive post that kicks off with a Dylan reference. What can I say? I’m in a Dylan kinda mood).

But it seems Dylan was wrong. Or optimistic.

Overly prophetic, perhaps.

Because, maybe then, when Dylan sang those words, he wasn’t singing for members of his generation.

But members of today’s.

Your generation…

We’ve just come through an epoch of uncurbed, unparalleled greed.

Unhindered hubris ironically cultivated by none other than representatives of Dylan’s generation (of which I lag behind by fifteen-odd years).

And, believing we had no voice—no choice

We let it happen.

And maybe, like Network’s Howard Beale, we were “As mad as hell.”

But maybe, at the same time, we didn’t know what to do about it.

But maybe now—maybe finally—there is a way.

Maybe, now, as Dave Carroll so evocatively illustrated, the times they are–indeed–a-changin’

And..

Maybe, now, the practice and habits of unmonitored business greed, unchecked CEO ego, and indifferent corporate insularity, can finally be exorcised.

With the power of social media, with tools like Twitter and Youtube,

There exists, today, that ability—that puissance—to say “Enough.”

To speak out against what’s wrong.

And for what is right.

To rally the cyber-troops.

To start a trend.

To tell big business, big government and big banking; we ain’t happy and we expect better.

You can effect change

With one catchy tweet.

One viral youtube post.

Maybe, now, thanks to social media, the times they are a-changin’

Use your power wisely.