Donut Maker Sponsors High School

Status: April Fool Prank
Students at Hugh McRoberts School in Richmond, British Columbia were stunned when they learned that donut-maker Tim Hortons was going to become an official sponsor of their school. As a result the nickname for the school's team would change from the "Strikers" to the "Dunkers". Also:

The school’s Snack Shack had been sold, students were told in a survey that asked which doughnuts they preferred for the new shack’s menu.
What’s more, the school was to undergo a complete re-branding, with new colours and a logo featuring a coffee cup with Tim Hortons in big letters.

Students responded by protesting and calling up the press to let them know what was happening. (Though other students were excited about the change... especially the possibility of free donuts.) Turned out it was all an experiment in mass manipulation crafted by the school's language-arts class (I have no idea what "language arts" are... it must be a Canadian thing. Maybe it's like rhetoric, or debate), and timed to coincide with April 1st. Now, presumably, students are protesting because they won't be getting their free donuts.

April Fools Day Pranks

Posted on Tue Apr 11, 2006


Comments

Actually, we have language arts in the States too. It's just a fancy way of saying English classes.
Posted by Gome2k3  on  Wed Apr 12, 2006  at  04:42 AM
Yeah. In High School most of our english classes were called "Language Arts" when you looked at your schedule.
Posted by Sakano  on  Wed Apr 12, 2006  at  07:53 AM
Ditto.
Posted by Maegan  on  Wed Apr 12, 2006  at  09:41 AM
In my high school we just called it English class. Or maybe literature.
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Wed Apr 12, 2006  at  10:33 AM
I am from the US and I had "language arts" instead of "English". I don't know if there's a difference.
Posted by Aiea  on  Wed Apr 12, 2006  at  05:29 PM
Okay, Canadian to the rescue. There are English Language arts and French language arts. When you're in french immersion it's confusing to say 'french' or 'english' when some classes are in one language, and some in the other.
Posted by Dracul  on  Wed Apr 12, 2006  at  06:02 PM
Tims' doughnuts and iced caps. *drools*
Posted by Dracul  on  Wed Apr 12, 2006  at  06:04 PM
I never went to grade school or high school, so I can't contribute to what classes were called. But if free doughnuts were offered as part of the deal, I'd gladly have changed mascots and mottoes and school colours and the names of classes and the name of the school and just about anything else, too. After all, it's FREE DOUGHNUTS!!! Woohoo!

It sounds as though the mass-manipulation experiment was considered a success, then.
Posted by Accipiter  on  Thu Apr 13, 2006  at  12:38 AM
When I was in Junior High (1953), they combined English and History and called it "LASS: Language Arts and Social Studies." We used to say "You can't have LASS without ASS," which is what you expect of seventh graders.
Posted by Captain Curmudgeon  on  Thu Apr 13, 2006  at  08:23 AM
I lived in Richmond, British Columbia for about 10 years. I never knew the people in that school were such a bunch of pranksters. Makes me proud!
Posted by Captain Al  on  Thu Apr 13, 2006  at  01:31 PM
Yeah, I'm an eighth-grader, and I take Language Arts. In New Jersey.
Posted by Kaitlin  on  Sun Apr 01, 2007  at  10:35 PM
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