Death Of Dietrich Mateschitz: How He Created The Red Bull Brand – HuffPost

HERBERT NEUBAUER / AFP This photograph taken on July 9, 2017 shows Red Bull co-founder and CEO Dietrich Mateschitz after the Austrian Formula One Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. – Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who made the energy drink a global phenomenon and forged a title-winning Formula One team and a sports empire, died on October 22, 2022 aged 78, the company said. (Photo by HERBERT NEUBAUER / APA / AFP) / Austria OUT HERBERT NEUBAUER / AFP Red Bull brand founder Dietrich Mateschitz, pictured here at the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Austria in 2017 has died aged 78. DEATH – “Red Bull gives wings”, and its creator Dietrich Mateschitz, must now own a pair, when we learned of his death this Saturday, October 23. Founder of the company manufacturing energy drinks Red Bull, the Austrian billionaire as secret as his firm was famous, died at the age of 78 from cancer. His emblematic energy drink, which has become essential, especially in the world of sports marketing, was born by chance, during a trip to Asia. It all started during one of his many business trips as marketing director for a German cosmetics company. He appears to have had an epiphany when he was served a sugary drink common in Asia at a fancy bar in Hong Kong. This drink is Krating Daeng, a tonic whose consumption is widespread among night workers and which can temporarily thwart fatigue, recalled Le Monde in 2008. Impressed by the apparent ability of the drink to help overcome jet lag, Dietrich Mateschitz decided to join forces with Thai businessman Chaleo Yoovidhya, who developed the drink, to found Red Bull in 1984. From its cradle in a verdant valley in the Alps, in Fuschl-am -See, the drink slowly but surely conquered Western taste buds and the brand grew worldwide thanks to its clever marketing. Red Bull and taurine, a long controversy Red Bull, according to its official composition, is a mixture of caffeine (0.03%), taurine (0.4%), “group B vitamins”, sugars and water. A 250ml can contains 80mg of caffeine, about the same amount as in a cup of homemade coffee. ALEXANDER KLEIN / AFP Austrian beverage energy drink cans of Red Bull are pictured in Vienna on March 16, 2013. Red Bull said that an unknown person has been attempting for several weeks to blackmail it by claiming to have contaminated its beverages with faeces. AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER KLEIN (Photo by ALEXANDER KLEIN / AFP) ALEXANDER KLEIN / AFP Red Bull cans arrived in France in 2008. Its composition has been the subject of a long controversy. So much so that, even though Red Bull cans were first launched on the Austrian market, most European countries initially banned them. In question in particular: the concern aroused by the high level of caffeine and the uncertain effects of taurine. The latter is a derivative of two amino acids made by the human body. It was not until 1992 that Hungary, Great Britain, then Germany in 1994 and the United States in 1997, authorized its marketing. As for France, it will have banned it for twelve years, from 1996 to 2008 before giving in. Initially, this green light was conditional on the replacement of taurine by arginine. But two months later, Christine Lagarde, Minister of the Economy at the time, finally authorized the marketing of the original recipe, no study having succeeded in proving the dangers of this product. However, a few years later, the controversy was revived after the death of a teenager, Brahim, 15, after running the 10 km in Crépy-en-Valois (Oise) during a foot race. The victim had consumed in the hours preceding his death a quantity of taurine twenty times higher than the upper range of the usual standards, “which cannot come only from food and which can correspond to the intake of several cans of Red Bull” , specified the report of the expert in charge of the investigation, quoted by Le Parisien. It was then recalled that energy drinks should not be consumed in large quantities, especially by pregnant women, children and adolescents. See also on The HuffPost: You cannot view this content because you have refused the cookies associated with content from third parties. If you want to view this content, you can change your choices.