Anyone ever attempt a Guinness World Record?

oldoldfart

Has anyone any experience of this?

I have a community based charity fund raising event in mind that is definitely achievable. It's not particularly technical, it just requires hard work & very good organisation.

Anyway, in my initial enquiries I realised that Guinness (as in the drinks company) have nothing to do with the World Record verification and to even just get the thing off the ground will cost either £6,000 or £8,500 depending on how the record attempt is viewed (i.e. corporate vs community based). I naively thought Guinness still sponsored this and a charity event might cost little or nothing to verify.

It kinda puts me on the back foot from the get go given it's for charity and unless I got a few very generous sponsors, I'm not sure I'd actually raise more than about £8,500 to begin with.

Peregrinus

Guinness, the brewers, sold the business in 2001 and it has changed hands a couple of times since then. Guinness never "sponsored" it; it was a profit-making venture from the outset.

Its business model (like so many others) was badly disrupted by the internet. They used to get the bulk of their revenue from book sales, but nobody buys reference books any more. So, starting in the early 2000s, they developed the model you have discovered; they get paid by people who want to be listed. Nowadays, they also invent new world records as publicity stunts for companies and individuals, whom they can charge for verification.

niallpatrick

Call it an unofficial record without mentioning Guinness or world records and you're good to go without paying anything to the publishers. Last year certain people who love burning pallets made the mistake of attempting a world record for the highest bonfire, nope not even a valid attempt because Guinness world records weren't informed or paid to verify it. The bonfire organisers assumed the current record which was set by a town in Holland was up for grabs, but that isn't how it works.

OP just make sure you state unofficial record attempt and everyone is aware it won't be an official record and it's all for charity anyway