When you go to Red Bull’s website, you are bombarded with images of various athletes in action and a box in the right hand corner featuring Red Bull’s latest product, Red Bull Cola. Skateboarder Ryan Sheckler and motorcyclist Travis Pastrana are both young, famous male athletes that have found success in their innovative and daring sports. In addition to Sheckler and Pastrana, many other young male athletes are featured on the site’s revolving homepage. In fact, all seven different pages of the homepage feature various nontraditional athletes, all of whom are spokespersons for Red Bull.
Red Bull’s website clearly focuses on attracting young males who are interested in extreme sports and want lots of energy. Red Bull proclaims that it “improves performance, increases concentration and reaction speed, increases endurance, and stimulates metabolism.” While the website and commercials may target a young, male audience, Red Bull argues that anyone who needs a boost of energy can benefit from drinking a Red Bull. “Top athletes, busy professionals, active students and drivers on long journeys” are all people Red Bull suggests could benefit from drinking their product.
While Red Bull’s USA website is not as vulgar as some of it’s energy competitors (Rockstar or Cocaine), some of its commercials are overtly sexual and male oriented. The commercial below, found on Red Bull’s website, features a family of dogs, including a large brood of puppies. The commercial seems rather innocent until the dog drinks Red Bull and his tail sticks straight up. The commercial suggests that by drinking their product, Red Bull has the ability to improve male performance in the bedroom (but is it enough for 400 babies?).
The video below is from Red Bull’s earlier ad campaign. Surprisingly, it’s much tamer than Red Bull and its competitors’ later advertising. Aladdin’s first wish is to be “as sly as a fox.” Since this wish is granted by the genie giving him a Red Bull, it is to be understood that Red Bull can improve the mind. The focus of this ad is therefore not entirely geared towards improving the body.
In addition, while the images in this ad are not blatantly sexual, some of the verbal content could be interpreted as a sexual reference. For example, one of Aladdin’s three wishes is to be “as big as a bull.” Aladdin flexes his biceps when he makes this statement, implying that maybe Aladdin could use some “menergy.”
