Interesting article on Slate.com and by Ben Mathis-Lilley concerning a childhood favorite of mine, The Guinness Book of World Records, and the fact that their ties to -ie payment to attend- Corporate Sponsored Events (in this case “The Largest Champagne Toast”!) may make you question the validity of these supposed “world records”:

Guiness World Records, Business Calls Into Question

Like the author (and as mentioned above), as a child I was fascinated with the Guinness World Records books.  Seeing photographs of the world’s tallest/shortest man/woman, of feats of endurance, of unique landmarks, of sporting events, etc. etc. genuinely held my interest and opened up my world to what lay outside its pre-internet small confines.

But time marches on and, like many other things, the internet has had an effect on the Guinness World Record Business.  The books aren’t selling anywhere near as well as they used to, which isn’t that big a surprise as you can find most of the interesting facts/records online if you were to look around.  In spite of all this, there is still publicity to be had surrounding a “Guinness World Record” your business is involved in and this is what lies at the article’s heart:

If businesses sponsor events and pay the Guinness people to come around to oversee them and report on their “World Record”, then is it not possible the businesses may influence -to a degree unknown- what the Guinness judges observe?  Are the judges more likely to officially sanction a record even if, again in the case of the particular “Largest Champagne Toast”, they do not personally witness everyone involved in the event?

I believe part of the problem lies in the fact that some of these records are, frankly, silly.  And yes, I am referring to the “World’s Largest Champagne Toast” in particular.  If you have the “World’s Tallest Person”, this is an easily measurable thing.  So too are things like the “World’s Longest Nails”, or the “World’s Most Expensive Car”, or the “World’s Tallest Building,” or “World’s Fastest Wo/Man”, etc. etc.

Even as I was still reading the Guinness Books, I noticed some of the records presented veered into the weird, not unlike this “World’s Largest Champagne Toast”.  They were clearly silly creations made specifically for entry into that book.  I suspect all those weirder records sponsored by Corporations are being done to get the word out on their product, whatever it may be.

Ah well, I guess the bottom line is that Guinness did such a good job creating a point of interest for people to focus on that its little wonder others have used it as an advertising platform.