It was National Toilet Paper Day in the United States on Friday, and to mark the event, Procter & Gamble's Charmin brand decided to celebrate by attempting the Guinness World Records title for largest toilet paper roll.
To be eligible for the record, the roll had to be outsized to scale and constructed from the same material used for a regular commercially available toilet roll, with the record determined by measuring the diameter of the final product.
The Charmin team polled their manufacturing plants to see the capacity and ability of their machines to see exactly how big they could push the size limit. After searching, the P&G Paper Products Company located outside of Cape Girardeau, Missouri was chosen to manufacture the oversized toilet paper roll; made entirely out of Charmin toilet paper product.
The roll was transported to Cincinnati, Ohio where it was wrapped with Charmin branded appropriate casing and stored at a secret facility. The large toilet roll was then transported to the P&G Headquarters on Friday morning to be unveiled for National Toilet Paper Day.
I flew to Cincinnati a few days before the unveiling to meet the Charmin team and see the toilet paper roll in person. The toilet roll's measurements were taken by a certified surveyor to ensure the precise diameter was recorded. After careful calculations, the final diameter measured 9.73 feet (the height measuring 8.49 feet). With the previous record measuring in at 5 feet 6.9 inches in diameter, Charmin had set a new record.
A large crowd gathered around the huge toilet paper roll, displayed outside the P&G headquarters for pictures and celebration. The famous Charmin Bear was also present for some laughs and great photo opportunities.
Congratulations to Charmin, and thanks to the team for their passion and precise planning to make this attempt worthy of a Guinness World Records title.