In a rare interview with Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung, Red Bull CEO Dietrich Mateschitz has revealed plans to launch a new media platform called “Näher an die Wahrheit”, which translates to “Closer to the Truth”.
Mateschitz is widely considered as the pioneer behind Red Bull’s branded content marketing empire. As Artnet wrote yesterday, Mateschitz “has earned a reputation as a marketing genius who has managed to do the impossible: make cultural content sponsored by a multi-billion-dollar corporation cool.”
This new venture will be German-language media platform which has already been compared to the US right-wing media giant Breitbart. Elsewhere in the interview, Mateschitz criticised Germany and Austria’s refugee policies as well as condemning “intellectual elites” and political correctness. He also expressed his support for Trump.
As Artnet points out, Näher an die Wahrheit has already begun assembling a team. The founding body includes Niko Alm – an Austrian neo-liberal activist known for a stunt where he protested the right to wear religious headwear in ID photos by registering as a “Pastafarian”.
The majority of Red Bull’s sponsorship is focused on sport but their main project outside of sport is the Red Bull Music Academy which was founded in 1998. Both editorially and through their events, the organisation have championed the left-leaning roots of dance music and club culture.
Mateschitz has claimed that the new venture will sit separately from the Red Bull empire. However, Der Standard notes that the foundation’s only benefactors are listed as Mateschitz and Servus Medien GmbH, which is run by the Red Bull Media House, a subsidiary of Red Bull.
When asked in the interview about the company’s goals for the future, Mateschitz told the interviewer that their focus is on “creativity, innovation [and] intelligence. It’s only through maximizing all of the things that are ingenious, high quality, creative, and meaningful that one arrives at profit.”
We have reached out to a representative for Red Bull for comment and will update this story as we learn more.
