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How much would you be willing to spend for a kebab costume? Surely not much more than 10-20 €. In an auction organized in the Canadian province of Alberta have come to pay almost 11,000 € for a life-size costume of this popular food, 142 cm tall. Although it is not exactly a kebab, because in Canada a variant known as donair is very popular, and inspired by the Greek gyro and the doner kebab from the Middle East. But let’s take it one step at a time: where did such a peculiar auction come from?
Apparently, the Alberta government commissioned that costume in 2015 to use it as the image in a campaign to raise awareness about driving under the influence of cannabis. In the end, it never got around to including the ‘Mr. Donair’ figure in the ad. As Dale Nally, minister of the provincial government, stated in The New York Times, that action “turned out to be a big investment for the Alberta government”, costing thousands of euros. A few years later, this institution has decided to dust off the costume and organize an auction starting at 50 Canadian dollars (about 34 euros). They usually organize this type of auction with government surpluses.
Almost a matter of state
It should be noted that the donair is a very popular food in Canada, especially in the city of Halifax (Nova Scotia), where the Halifax Regional Council declared the donair the official food of Halifax in 2015. As a result, the bidding reached almost €11,000. This original action became a revolution in the Canadian province, being a real struggle to get hold of such a precious costume.
One of the anecdotal facts that made this bidding almost a matter of state is the dilemma of the lettuce as an ingredient included in the donair. Many of the bidders went so far as to claim that, if they got their hands on the costume, they would end up taking away the lettuce part. This issue made the defenders of the vegetable as part of the original recipe bid even harder for that not to happen.
In the final third, there were two bidders who were the ones who reached the whopping figure of 16,000 Canadian dollars (about 10,800 €). On one side was a camping enthusiast who wanted the costume as a tribute to his deceased wife, as it reminded him of a trip they took to Nova Scotia before they were married, according to The Guardian.
On the other side was also Adil Asim, owner of PrimeTime Donair and Poutine, Edmonton, who wanted it every bit as much as he could to keep the lettuce. A $5 difference made the donair go to Asim.