#Red Bull (y): Believing Your Own Bull Can Blow Up Your Brand

Per link to WSJ story profiling a lawsuit brought by promotional idea-man Dan Hogan against Red Bull, the elixir to the under-energized.

Four years ago, Hogan apparently supplied Red Bull execs with the idea for a publicity stunt, one in which someone breaks all records and sky-dives from the stratosphere--20 miles high to be exact,  in a NASA suit. According to the lawsuit, after Hogan presented the idea, and then exchanged multiple emails and letters  re: the logistics of the stunt, fee agreements etc, Red Bull purportedly told Hogan to go fly a kite..and lo and behold, four years later, introduced the promotion (still pending) as if it were their own concoction.

Before another brand starts drinking its own juice and becomes intoxicated with a sensation of IP energy, and forgets that good will is its most precious asset:

Rule #1..Stay sober when it comes to stealing  infringing on other people's ideas..However well or poorly-documented the "agreement" between Hogan and Red Bull might be, Bull's allowing the dispute to escalate to the point of litigation covered by the media is dumber than jumping out of a plane without a parachute....

I don't drink the stuff, but if I did, and if I were a tree-hugging brand loyalist and heard about the dispute, I'd automatically conclude that Bull bullied the idea creator, only because they think they can. I'd then take all of those cans and pour them down the drain.