Nearly a decade ago, then Advertising Age editor Scott Donaton coined the phrase Madison and Vine to describe the new way advertising (Madison Avenue) and Hollywood (Vine Street) were collaborating, blurring the lines between traditional advertising and entertainment. Think "The Apprentice," which is about people promoting themselves by working on projects that are from companies promoting themselves produced by a mogul promoting himself. 
 
 Now that Felix Baumgartner has dropped out of the sky and plummeted safely to earth courtesy of Red Bull, will we see brands move heavily into the sponsorship of science and research? 
 
 From a marketing perspective, Red Bull stayed right on message. Their tagline is "Red Bull Gives You Wings." They are involved in a number of sponsorships that emphasize the product benefit—energy in a can—thanks to healthy doses of sugar and caffeine. Those sponsorships include racing, surfing, mountain biking, soccer, bull-fighting, basketball , the X-Games and adrenaline-inducing athletic activities like cliff diving and even an event called Crashed Ice which is a combination of ice hockey, downhill skating and boardercross. 
 
 Even for a company so focused on speed and extreme sports, dropping what experts agree was millions of dollars on a project called Red Bull Stratos a mission to the edge of space and a 24 mile free-fall, is reaching. The risks were great. Many things could have gone wrong and concentrated the world's focus on a company that is marketing a beverage that some countries allow only to be sold in pharmacies and still has doctors investigating its potential negative health effects. 
 
 If Baumgartner had plunged to earth unconscious or been otherwise injured it would have amplified Red Bull's sponsorship of so many sports that are considered dangerous. But, they didn't. Austrian Skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner, 43, jumped out of a capsule 24 miles above the earth and fell at speeds estimated to have been greater than 800 miles per hour and landed safely back on earth. And now the question is will the tens of millions of dollars in free publicity and attention garnered by Red Bull attract other companies to move outside of traditional advertising and promotional sponsorships into the area of science and research. 
 
 It is important to point out that Red Bull isn't the first consumer company to sponsor this type of activity. Past notable sponsorships include Shaklee corporation's sponsorship of the 1988 Daedalus, which broke the record for distance for human powered aircraft, and Watchmaker Breitling's sponsorship in 1999 of the first successful round the world balloon flight. Purists will want to differentiate between adventure and science but it is clear that these types of projects have the potential to make heavy contributions to science. Nor was Red Bull the only sponsor of Stratos, there were other aerospace and equipment companies and at least one other consumer brand, GoPro, who provided wearable high-definition cameras. 
 
 The question is: Will we ever see global companies like Cola-Cola and Nike, who are fighting rising costs and increased competition, push onto broader platforms like scientific and medical research where they could conceivably gain increased customer loyalty and respect while reinforcing their brands? The companies already participate in a number of philanthropic causes. 
 
 A spokesman for Nike said the company conducts a wide range of sport and body-related scientific research. 
 
 In a statement, the Coca-Cola Company said it "supports independent research designed to promote evidence-based science to advance knowledge, understanding and help facilitate workable solutions to promote active, healthy living. For research related to our business and product portfolio we support independent research, as well as research we do internally, as part of our commitment to product and packaging safety and quality." 
 
 Nike's tagline is the venerable phrase "Just Do It" while Coke's worldwide tag is "Open Happiness." It doesn't take much imagination to see how Nike's slogan could be used by the company to inspire millions fighting through medical challenges that involve walking and running. Similarly, "Open Happiness" lends itself nicely to a world where 1.1 billion people don't have access to clean drinking water. 
 
 Author Max Barry must be giddy with excitement. Max is the author of the novel Jennifer Government. He writes about a future world where companies like Nike, IBM and Apple have formed two alliances which run the world. This was all a far-fetched guilty pleasure for me as an ad guy until NASA cancelled the manned space program and Felix Baumgartner rose 24 miles above the earth adorned in a Red Bull costume. Will we now see the convergence of Madison and MIT? I'm going outside to look up at the sky now. 
 
 This work is the opinion of the columnist and in no way reflects the opinion of ABC News. 
 
 Larry D. Woodard is CEO of Graham Stanley Advertising and the co-author of the book, "Advertising as a Branding Tool." 
 
 Follow @grahamstan 
 
 Get updates via SMS by texting "follow grahamstan" to 40404 in the United States. ||||| Now that the dust has settled in the New Mexico desert where supersonic skydiver "Fearless Felix" Baumgartner landed safely on his feet, researchers are exhilarated over the possibility his exploit could someday help save the lives of pilots and space travelers in a disaster. 
 
 FILE - In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012 image provided by Red Bull Stratos, pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria jumps out of his capsule during the final manned flight for Red Bull Stratos. Baumgartner's... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012 photo provided by Red Bull Stratos, Pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria celebrates after successfully completing the final manned flight for Red Bull Stratos in Roswell,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Baumgartner's death-defying jump Sunday from a balloon 24 miles above Earth yielded a wealth of information about the punishing effects of extreme speed and altitude on the human body _ insights that could inform the development of improved spacesuits, new training procedures and emergency medical treatment. 
 
 A NASA engineer who specializes in astronaut escape systems said Baumgartner's mission "gives us a good foundation" for improving the odds of survival for professional astronauts, space tourists and high-altitude pilots and passengers. 
 
 "What I would hope is that, perhaps, this is just the first step of many, many advancements to come" in emergency bailouts, said Dustin Gohmert, who heads NASA's crew survival engineering office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. 
 
 In an interview after Baumgartner became the first skydiver to break the speed of sound, Gohmert noted that researchers have spent decades working on self-contained space escape systems, with no significant advances since Joe Kittinger in 1960 jumped from 19.5 miles up and reached 614 mph, records that stood until Sunday. 
 
 Baumgartner's feat was sponsored by energy drink maker Red Bull, and NASA had no role. But Dr. Jonathan Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who lost his wife, Laurel, in the space shuttle Columbia accident and dedicated himself to improving crew escape systems, was in charge of Baumgartner's medical team. 
 
 And he was thrilled at how much was learned. 
 
 By going well beyond Mach 1, or the speed of sound, Baumgartner provided even more data than anticipated. Wearing a pressurized suit and helmet, he accelerated to an astonishing 834 mph and was supersonic longer than expected. The speed of sound at that altitude is close to 700 mph. 
 
 "It was Mach 1.24, which is really huge. I mean, that's a much higher level than we'd ever anticipated, so we learned a lot by going faster and higher," said Clark, who teaches at the Baylor College School of Medicine. 
 
 Clark said his team is still analyzing all the medical data _ heart rate, blood pressure and the like _ collected from sensors on Baumgartner's body. 
 
 During his descent through the stratosphere, Baumgartner went into an out-of-control spin for about 40 seconds, experiencing around 2.5 G's, or 2.5 times the force of gravity, before stabilizing himself. 
 
 Baumgartner's technique for righting himself may prove useful for companies like Virgin Galactic that are developing spacecraft that will take tourists up into space and right back down. These enterprises will need to have some sort of emergency escape plan. 
 
 NASA's next-generation spaceship, the Orion vehicle intended for deep-space exploration, will parachute home like the old-style Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules. The lessons learned from Baumgartner's effort probably won't apply directly to the Orion design, since it will be safer for astronauts to remain in the vessel all the way back to Earth, Gohmert said. 
 
 As for the now-ended shuttle program, Columbia was traveling too high and too fast during its 2003 descent for a Baumgartner-style exit to have helped the seven astronauts. The spaceship broke apart about 40 miles up while traveling more than Mach 17, unleashing forces that tore the crew members' bodies apart. 
 
 In the 1986 Challenger disaster, the crew capsule shot out of the fireball that erupted during liftoff, but there are too many unknowns to say whether any lessons from Baumgartner's feat might have applied to that tragedy, Gohmert said. 
 
 After each accident, NASA improved its efforts to protect crews in an emergency. But by the time the 30-year shuttle program shut down last year, the window for escape was still limited to below about 6 miles and less than 230 mph. 
 
 Baumgartner's pressurized suit _ a close cousin of the orange suits used by shuttle astronauts and the suits worn by high-altitude U-2 spy pilots _ was designed for use in a standing, free-falling position, while conventional spacesuits are made primarily for sitting. By all accounts, the new suit performed well. 
 
 "I think all of us here in our lab specifically who have dealt with the shuttle suits have looked at this in wonder and amazement, and really appreciated what they did," Gohmert said. "And that efficiency that they brought it forth with is also a model for us to learn from as well." 
 
 The suit was made by the David Clark Co. of Worcester, Mass. 
 
 "Perhaps in the future, someone might say, `We want people to be in suits, some type of commercial space thing. We want them to be able to float around better and not in a seated position,'" Dan McCarter, a program manager at the company, said Wednesday. 
 
 "Now we know a little more on how to reposition arms and legs on the suit. Of course, we're always doing research and development. ... New knee joints, new elbow joints, lighter hardware. It's nonstop. We are currently working on the next-generation of suit right now for NASA and the Air Force." 
 
 The suit Baumgartner used was previously certified to 100,000 feet. "Well, we pretty much say now it's certified to 128,000 feet," McCarter said. 
 
 An uncorrected spin could have caused Baumgartner to black out and suffer a deadly stroke. Baumgartner said afterward that he could feel pressure building in his head during the spin, but did not come close to passing out. 
 
 His recovery crew had specialized equipment on hand to treat him for a multitude of medical problems he might have suffered. Clark and his team spent years refining the emergency treatments and the mobile gear required. In the end, none of it was needed. 
 
 "I tell you, we had a lot of medical support because we were very concerned," Clark said. "We had to be ready for everything." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Online: 
 
 Red Bull Stratos: http://www.redbullstratos.com 
 
 U.S. Parachute Association: http://www.uspa.org
– When Felix Baumgartner jumped from the edge of space wearing prominent Red Bull logos on his spacesuit, advertising CEO Larry Woodard got excited. Could we, he asks in a column for ABC News, be on the verge of a new age of ad-sponsored science? "Red Bull stayed right on message," Woodard observes—if this isn't "giving you wings" what is?—and reaped tens of millions in free publicity. That success might look attractive to some big-time corporations. Nike says it already supports sport- and body-related research, and Coca-Cola says it supports "independent research" designed to "promote active, healthy living." Not exactly sending men to space, but it's a start. And lest you doubt the scientific merits of Baumgartner's stunt, the AP talked to NASA engineers who say it could definitely improve spacesuit design and emergency escape systems for astronauts. "It was Mach 1.24, which is really huge," says the head of Red Bull's medical team. "We learned a lot."