How far is too far in the race for eyeballs?

Clif Bar’s brand managers have drawn the line at sponsoring extreme athletes who regularly put themselves at risk of death.

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The war for eyeballs online has gotten pretty grotesque. There is seemingly nothing that is off limits. And yet, as an entrepreneur, if you are trying to grow your business, it can feel as though you need to play the game, or risk losing customers — and revenue.

But at least one company says it has come to the edge of acceptable and it is backing away from the line. Or, in this case, perhaps it is more apt to say, it has come to the edge of the cliff and is erring towards caution.

Clif Bar, the Emeryville, California-based energy-bar company, announced that it would no longer sponsor rock climbers who specialize in free-soloing (climbing without harnesses or other protective gear), BASE jumping (parachuting from a cliff or other permanent structure) and highlining (basically tight roping at high elevations). All three varieties of climbing are extreme sports which involve death defying amounts of danger.

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