The Texas Rangers broke the Guinness Book of World Records for most people wearing sunglasses in the dark, and also set a record for the most ridiculous publicity stunt of the year.
It only took 424 people wearing sunglasses to beat the record. So even though most of the 33,533 fans in attendance (including former President George W. Bush and Nolan Ryan) donned sunglasses provided by Reliant Energy, the Guinness people only officially counted the ones needed for the record.
“I’m pleased to say that 424 people participated in this attempt,” the Guinness flak said. “There were a further unconfirmed 30,000 who helped Reliant Energy in this attempt.”
It’s hardly an “attempt” if they succeeded in breaking the record by tens of thousands of people. And the only reason the others were “unconfirmed” is because Guinness didn’t bother to count them.
Some other team could break the record again tonight with 425. And somebody else could break it tomorrow night with 426. There could be a new record set every night for many years to come, which is kind of anti-climactic as far as world records go.
Go to a Dallas hipster club on any night of the week and you’ll probably see a record-breaking number of people wearing sunglasses in the dark.
That is dumb. It sounds more like a way to get publicity for Reliant Energy and Guinness Book of Records instead of the people setting the record itself.
So what if it was a PR stunt? It was something fun to do for the people involved, and it was to bring attention to renewable forms of energy.
So I’m guessing you’re a Yankees fan.