Journey to the Centre of the Earth

It seems that the enterprising people at Nat Geo have taken a leaf out of Red Bull's ingenious book and turned themselves into an adventure sponsoring machine. In the manner of Red Bull's Stratos adventure in which Felix Baumgernater will leap out of a capsule a dozen or so miles above the earth's surface; Nat Geo is planning to send a Hollywood movie director the other way - this time to the bottom of the sea... exciting stuff.

National Geographic's Deepsea Challenge is basically sending a man by the name of James Cameron (who's taken a few days off from his burgeoning directorial career) to the hitherto only once before explored depths of the Marinas Trench. This mirrors Red Bull's ingenious publicity stunt in many ways, most notably the fact that both present day missions had been carried out only once before in the 1960's.

 

Nat Geo's efforts to study the darkest depths of the ocean is of course a fantastic step in furthering scientific knowledge and helping quell humanity's insatiable thirst for knowledge... buuuut it is also a fantastic way of generating traffic for the website. If one is to take a leaf (or in this case the bones of a chapter) out of someone's book it may as well be Red Bull's. They have managed to transfer themselves from purveyor of slightly toxic canned drinks into one of the foremost international sports/adventure/lifestyle brands in a matter of only a few years.