Bompas and Parr is selling milk jam, which the label touts as being infused with a speck of Princess Diana's hair.
Sam Bompas wants breakfast to be fun, a chance to start the day with food to fuel the body and stimulate the mind - and get some intriguing conversations started. What better way to do that than with a spread of Milk Jam infused with a speck of Princess Diana's hair. Yes, you read that right, Princess Di's hair.
If you're thinking that doesn't whet your appetite, he has a few alternatives: How about a jam of absinthe and pineapple with sand from the Great Pyramids or plum and oak jam with wood from the British warship The Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Bompas isn't kidding about trying to sell you on jam with Lady Di's hair. But he is trying to get your attention - and is it ever working.
Word of the jam that may include the golden locks of the beloved has spread globally online - with instant reactions ranging from stomach-inducing nausea, outrage of a publicity stunt or just straight confusion. Long term, Bompas hopes the public will be appreciating his creations as works of art.
Which, ironically, is how all this got started.
Sand from the Great Pyramids and wood from a British warship are among the ingredients in the occult jams.
Bompas, who founded Bompas and Parr in London, England with his school friend, told CNN he has worked for a long time on merging architectures, arts and food to create a "magical" and palatable experience. So when he was asked to create something for a surrealist art show at London's Barbican Art Gallery - which includes
exhibits by Salvador Dali and Rene Margritte - he too wanted to jump outside the box. Enter the "occult jams" - known for jams infused with different objects in a search for eternal life.
"We thought the most mundane food - but also magical - is jam," Bompas told CNN. "We thought there could be a way to come up with a real jam product that makes people excited about it and examine really quite how marvelous it is."
Bompas decided he wanted to push it to the limit - to see how far he could go with infusing some of the strangest objects, but also ones we can all relate to - by putting them in his jam. So he got on eBay and purchased locks of Diana's hair and got together his other ingredients to start preparations.
"We wanted the jams to have these weird and wonderful ingredients," Bompas said. "By using things like sand from Egypt, hair from Princess Diana,
if you are going to choose an odd ingredient, choose one that everyone can relate to. It can open up those conversations, and it will. Everyone can
have those conversations about how they feel about it - it's the eternal debate of what is art. What has started out as art itself has become a product with a lot of major retailers."
Perhaps Bompas has Princess Diana to thank for that, because now the founder is preparing to make the jam available through retailers worldwide, instead of just the store at the Art Gallery (where it sells for about $7 a jar). Bompas said the jams have been through all the normal testing procedures to ensure safety and shelf-life testing.
In his world, Bompas hopes people would learn to be open-minded about what they are eating, or at least just start a conversation about it. It's something he says he regularly tries to do by recreating historical events - like flooding a building with four tons of cognac to recreate an event from the 1600s. For Bompas, the idea of boating through your alcohol was a fascinating experience. One he couldn't help but try to recreate.
"I try to think - why hasn't that happened in my lifetime and then try and work to make it happen," he said.
And that's the case with the jam.
"What we'd like is to literally have people think about the foods that they put in their mouths," he said. "A lot of the things we do are history-oriented and hopefully end up quite magical and special."
Gross and nauseating!
TONG! LOOK AT THE LEFT COLUMN OF KEYS ON YOUR KEYBOARD. THERE SHOULD BE ONE LABELED "Caps Lock". PRESS IT. JUST ONCE.
There, all better.
I second that! Eeeeeewww!
The artist has set a new low for disgusting in both his artistic taste and his moral depravity.
What's next, wine infused with the tears of starving Ethiopian children?
Agreed. This makes me sick!
We are such an excessive species....
where can i buy this at?
Collectors want the Elvis Jam with the Peanut Butter – Banana Sandwich essence!
How about Mama Cass Jam, delicious with ham sandwich?
Real Connoisseurs want the Betty Page Lingerie infused Strawberry Jelly – “Oh that Jelly tastes so good!!!â€
Princess Diana seemed to be a nice woman thrust into the spotlight unwittingly, who before her tragic and untimely death, made an attempt to do something good with her fame. To see her memory continue to be used in such a fashion is sad testimony of the human condition. While this is only hair (maybe), only a fool would not recognize that it's being sold as a cannibalistic product. Sad, really.
you have issues
Maybe they will put her dandruff in it.
ERIC, You are so true, she was a a remarkable person.I don't call this respecting her memory. I feel so sorry that her boys have to see this sort of craziness. This is so very sad. I also agree with you about this being sold as a cannibalistic product.How can it not be? This is just sickening.
"Thrust into the spotlight unwittingly"???? The woman married the future freaking King of England.
Other big sellers: Madonna panty infused marmalade. John Lennon toenail infused strawberry fields forever jam. Lady Gaga earwax infused fig perserves.
Don't give these nut-bags any more crazy ideas.
good one
"perserves" is it a mix between "preserves" and "perverse"?
Foe some time I've been watching political developments and thinking we're slipping back into the Middle Ages. I was wrong... we're slipping all the way back to cannibalism.
yeap!
We're slipping back to pre Neanderthal-ism, but with jam!
Thanks but NAH.............
They've got Diana dandruff salt too. Perfect for seasoning your Michael Jackson fried toenail chips.
LMAO. Now i love Michael Jackson but i will not be having some fried toenail chips..That made me laugh so hard.
Now I'm hungry, thanks for the laugh.
how about toe jam...YUM YUM, people are freaks
What? nauseating. Who would do such a stupid publicity stunt? they should be jailed for attempt at cannibalism of the dead person.
first of all: how did they get her hair? second: the family ( her sons) can sue the fools for everything they got to make such a publicity stunt. Not funny and really pathetic. I hope they lose their asses.
France passed a law regarding the effigies of politicians a few years ago but beyond how this gets back into a conspiracy about her death via the kind of "traditional" feminism that is Democracy, I doubt they would win a law suit. It would imply something too Islamic for Western courts no doubt.
On ebay.
AS WAS STATED IN THE ARTICLE.
Good god, learn to read before you comment.
So, they went on ebay and bought locks of her hair huh? Who sold it? Some guy who took some of his daughter's blonde hair out of her hairbrush and put it on ebay as Princess Diana's hair? Sounds like it to me.
The problem with this type of crass marketing is that there are always a few knuckleheads with more money than brains that will buy it.