Red Bull has got into trouble with Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority, after a “VIP Trip” for a competition prize winner, turned out to be more like a Carry On film. The Austrian drinks company advertised a “VIP Trip to Watch the Belgian Grand Prix” but the prizewinner complained to the Authority that this did not live up to his expectations, claiming that it was not properly administered and that the description “VIP” was misleading.
The adventures included being told about the trip at the very last minute; having to share a bed, despite a specific request for two single beds; and having to take their suitcases with them to the race because they needed to leave for the airport BEFORE the Grand Prix ended, because of the timing of their return flight. Red Bull attempted a defence, but it was rejected.
The complainant detailed that he and his brother were flown to Cologne in Germany, were in a hotel in Holland and had to take a return flight from Brussels in Belgium. Beyond being given the flights, they had to organise their own transportation.
The authority said that the promotion “excluded significant conditions and the promoter had not made available adequate resources to administer the promotion equitably or efficiently” and that the promotion “was misleading and breached the Code”.
The complainant also challenged the “VIP” description of the trip because the hotel did not have a spa (as he was told by the company) and the flights were on a budget airline. The tickets were for grandstand seats and not VIP tickets.
The authority agreed that the descriptions also breached the code.
joeblogsf1 
“Gives you wings”
VIP – Very Impoverished Person, Helmut must of organized this thinking these were relatives of Mark Webber
My goodness ,. You would think RB would not be so tight, especially with the amount of money they make. It was probably organized ba a 17 year old.
No wonder Mark can appear a little tetchy at times if this is what he has to put up with
Rightly so, that is pretty poor form. Hope this kind of thing doesn’t happen often.
Absolutely disgraceful stuff. I hope red bull understand that the PR damage of this kind of this outweighs any savings made by whoever looked to minimise the cost of the whole trip. Honesty is the best policy.
That really is p**s poor from a team and organisation worth billions and not good publicity.
While its great to give out a prize like a race visit, I fully get why these guys (rightly) felt badly done by. The whole feels more like something one would device to make a budget trip than anything like a VIP experience.
Good thing the courts agreed. A bit of a shame we will now see teams promising “low budget but free race trip” instead of VIP trips though 😮
Interesting how Red Bull is all about marketing, but gets far to many things wrong.
With the Napoleonic arrogance of Helmut Marko and Christian Horner, Red Bull’s shown they’re simply a pumped-up energy drink without the class of the long established teams like McLaren, Ferrari, Sauber or Williams. Welcome to the new age of F1 courtesy of the Bernie Ecclestone.
Yeah, I bought a redbull and it didn’t give me wings, I was certain it was magic in the can and I would turn into Vettel but it ended up just being sugar and food colouring!
Can I have something for nothing too?
If there was plain water and grit in the can instead of an ‘energy drink’ then you’d have a point. As it is, Red Bull profited from the PR generated by offering this trip but didn’t hold up their end of the bargain.
Classic case of how not to do something.
For what it would have gained them in favourable publicity it would have been well worth doing it properly and spending the money. It’s not as though it would have been that expensive, their own expense accounts must run into millions over a year.
What’s the penalty? Another VIP package?
LOL
Disappointing that a team with such resources would mislead someone in this way. The bad PR will outweigh the PR gained from the competition itself.
Fair play to him for challenging it.
Good luck to whoever wins their next competition. He will probably by picked up by Mark Webber, flown to the circuit on Dietrich Mateschitz’s private jet and will probably be sitting beside Christian Horner on the pitwall!
in defense of the team, can we assume that this was the drinks company/distributer marketing dept. (or subcontracted PR firm) and not Red Bull Racing company?
let’s be fair to the racing guys. I know it’s still under Deitrich’s overall control.
Not bad for a number 2 VIP deal… yes, that kind of number 2.
Taxi for Red Bull…
Joe – we’re always seeing random celebrities popping up at various races as “guests of the team” (i.e. actual VIPs)… any idea how much teams will typically spend on hosting / entertaining them? Presumably someone has done the sums to ensure there’s a sensible return on it?
While I’m sure these blokes had a case, prize winners can be the most ungrateful rear-end exit ports you can imagine. As a young production editor on a car mag, I had to ring a reader to tell them they’d won a car (a red Alfa, from memory). “Oh, really? Hmm. But I don’t like red cars. And it’s a manual? Hmm. Don’t like manuals.” and so on. Jaw-dropping. And it didn’t happen just the once…
I’ll take the Alfa. 😉
Makes one wonder if it’s the same mob who manage to make a car and get it to the track. Obviously not, probably a YTS person on a temporary work placement.
Were this a British team the term “piss-up in a brewery” would spring to the fore.
Interestingly it’s not actually allowed inside the brewery but has to be in a separate building. Sampling is ok at various stages though!
So in spite of the old saying, I reckon there is such a thing as bad publicity and this is it.
Cant wait to see Christian answer questions on this. 🙂
Nothing to do with the team probably.
Whoever it was delegated to won’t be doing it again – but the brave straregy would be to give these people the ‘proper job’ sometime this year – might even get some brownie points
Exactly – that’s what I was thinking Joe. Sounds like a PR company contracted by Red Bull whom outsourced the arrangements to a second team who dropped the ball. Quite why they decided to fight this in court is beyond me unless the complainant was asking for something unreasonable as compensation. If I was Red Bull I would never have allowed this to go further. Seems like they should have apologized and given them a helicopter flight into this years Silverstone race along with a garage pass and lunch with the team. Then dump the PR company but not before invoicing them for the ‘make -up’ event costs for these fans.
Seem to remember some stand up comic or other doing a bit about the phrase “piss up in a brewery” and pointing out that it’s actually quite difficult – because their security people are often surprisingly fast and really quite scary…
on further thinking this over (and after reading @f1kate s take on it http://www.f1katewalker.com/1/post/2013/02/in-defense-of-red-bull.html) – it really should have been dubbed “the paddock hack F1 experience”!
So, it’s not just their front wings that are (allegedly) flexible!
So, what was the penalty handed down from “Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority”?
My cynical side guesses that RB had to toss the guy a lil bit o money, but had to pay off the BASA to a much larger degree.
A slap on the wrist.
You should make it clear the F1 team had nothing to do with it.
I never said ws the race team.
I know it is not the race team, but it does appear that throughout the Red Bull empire there is an odd lack of appreciation for the consequences of actions on PR. IE a lack of someone to say you do that (treat Webber as a number two , have a lead advisor speak negatively about a driver in public, ruthlessly kick out rookie drivers but then fail to really promote one of your vaunted up and coming guys to a top position for example) then it will negatively blow back on you. There is a line of thinking that any publicity is good publicity. This case just says “Red Bull comes up short of expectations”! When you claim your product “gives you wings” maybe that is the truth!
They really need someone very high up in the empire who can kick people very hard when they screw up across the company. Simple fix for this one when the people complained, “What race are you next free for that we can take you to and make amends?”. Then make that into a good news story!
RB live (and die) on PR , because PR is a big part of marketing these days. So why not do it right? Hopefully this is embarrassing enough to cause whole sale change! Somehow I doubt it!
> Simple fix for this one when the people complained, “What race are you next free for that we can take you to and make amends?”. Then make that into a good news story!
Exactly! But no, they didn’t do that either. Although they DID apologise for the lack of a twin room, apparently they just told the guys that they hadn’t read the small print properly re. the DIY travel costs. They only finally stumped up for those when they found out the “winners” had had to leave before the end of the race to catch their flight.
It does smell strongly of being organised by an intern who’s never been in an airport in their lives and has no idea of the concept of security queues, gate close times, etc., let alone the time required to get to the airport from the racetrack.
The fact that Red Bull didn’t fix this immediately the guys complained to them is almost the bigger story here. Probably wouldn’t have gotten as far as the ASA and the newspapers if they’d been properly handled then.
Shambles.
They might give you wings but you’ll have to flap them yourself.
They said it was AT Spa, not IN a Spa! VIP usually means Very Inconsequential Prat when it comes to members of the public.
No, they said that it was a spa hotel for Spa.
Members of the public? As opposed to what? I thought we were all members of the public.
The biggest blunder from Red Bull is surely allowing the case to go to court/tribunal. Why bother attempting a defence when you are so clearly in the wrong? It would have been much better to recognise the mistake, apologise and offer a proper gp visit at the “winners” convenience. would have made much better PR than trying to pretend there was nothing wrong with the original prize.
could never see this type of thing happening at McLaren!
Would never have happened under the McLaren name!! Many years ago, spent a wonderful day at McLaren’s old HQ at Woking on a tour. Was well looked after there – a day I’ve never forgotten.
The team may have had nothing to do with it and not known about it, but they should have.
It is extremely poor communication and planning. The team is named after the drink, the assumption of a connection with the competition is not a giant step. If the PR agency running the competition in the name of the same product cannot be bothered to line up the F1 team to expect two VIP guests then they want firing. Still it seems they cant be trusted with travel or accommodation either. Looks to me like everyone forgot about it until the week before. No doubt it was subcontracted down through three levels of agency, but if the one actually working for Red Bull commissioning it, fails to keep tabs on it then they are still responsible.
I can’t get my head around how and why a company which is BUILT on PR spin and bullshit could get something so badly wrong. When you compare the cost of marketing the prize to the cost of actually delivering it, it really does make you wonder what on earth went wrong.
As a counter to all the negative comments, I was lucky enough to win a Casio/Red Bull competition to Japan GP in 2010. It was the trip of a lifetime for my wife and I. Flights out, Peninsular Hotel in Tokyo for a week with tours, including a night time helicopter flight over Tokyo, and meals laid on every day, full time guide, then Bullet Train to Nagoya for the race on the Sunday. They even arranged (!) for a torrential storm to postpone qualifying from Sat to Sun, so we got to see that too. Bullet Train back to Tokyo the day after the race before the return flight a day later.
It was an absolutely fantastic experience and perfectly organised.
Lucky you. Shame it was not the same story with the other lot.
if RB have bee reading this stream then hopefully the ‘other lot ‘ will get a second go this year?
suitcases for a two day trip… and fancy catching a plane to go to a motor race in Belgium. should have paid more attention in their geography lessons.
One Side is: don’t look a given horse in the mouth (dutch expression) but the other Side is: what the €)@%#!1!! How can you spend the most of all teams and call this a vip trip. Maybe trip was meant to be another kind of trip and they missed the Bucket of kool aid in their hotel….
Just for your info, the expression’s the same in English: “never look a gift horse in the mouth”.
But yeah, this horse was pretty diseased and not as described.
Or disguised as lasagne.
And it probably ended up in some Ikea meatballs.
Went to see the great Alexei Sayle last year , he was telling us about a VIP bash of Ben Elton’s where they put the competition winners in a windowless room and threw pizza slices at them :0)
He was joking of course , this sort of thing *never* goes on …
VIP , my arse !
OK, I have to ask… What is a “Carry On film”? Don’t think I’ve ever heard that expression before (I’m from Indianapolis, Indiana).
Let me introduce you to Mr Google…
Classic late 60’s and early 70’s british ‘slap n tickle’, double entendre, humour:
Thank you, Daniel.
I was very lucky to win a trip for two to the 2009 Spanish GP with Hilton, who were part of the Mclaren sponsors. Return flights from Stansted to Barcelona, transfers. 3 days grandstands tickets (they were so awful we went into the general admission instead), hilton hotel and a fantastic meal on the saturday night with a few bottles of wine.. not bad for answering the question: ‘who was the 2007 world champion’ 🙂
That red bull competition winner had a right ‘mare, I hope someone gets a damn good ticking off !