To think "Class A Gear" is an inappropriate title for a Paperchase email aimed at students?

[ShinesLikeGold]

Just had an email from Paperchase, selling notebooks, bags, diaries etc for students, ready for the new school/uni term.

Am no prude but AIBU to think making heroin-based puns is totally out of order?

I read your title and thought of drugs...

Not sure I would have made the connection there, OP!

Wouldn't have made Tha connection either. I thought your post was going to be about intellectual elitism.

Exactly - 'gear' is slang for heroin which is a class A drug. They quite clearly know what they were doing. And I am astonished it got signed off... Especially considering the audience!

That is two drug references in one phrase!
'Class A' and then 'gear' which is slang for heroin.
Yes I think it inappropriate and some idiot at Paperchase is trying v hard to be 'down with the kids' but sounds like he down with the junkies.
Some people think that 'gear' can also mean eg cannabis, but it doesn't it specifically references heroin.
YANBU.

Could it be unintentional? My first thought was 'class a' in the sense of top set etc...

I think its an average pun, designed to make you take notice.

Not out of order. And not something getting worked up about.

yes 'gear' can mean anything as in 'stuff' but it has specifically come to mean heroin in druggie parlance.

Absolutely, separately they can and do mean totally different things.

Together? That's no accident...

I just had the same email this morning and had a little 'ooh' when I saw it. DH said I was reading far too much into it, and that they only meant Class A as in top of the class at school. I disagree.

Well, it could be some smartass PR person at Paperchase, or it could be some rather thoughtless or naive person at Paperchase, who came up with the title.

Either way, I'm not sure it warrants a thread...

Op I think you are over reacting!

oh lush really, are you the thread police or something?

It's AIBU, Twm. She asked, I answered. No one's policing any threads - it just makes me smile that someone could get so hot under the collar about this frankly rather anodyne email title.

Yawn

I've never heard anyone say "class A" to mean top of the class. Grade A maybe or top set, but this is definitely a heroin reference. Do any kids really think heroin is "cool" these days? They're so well informed that most I know would scorn such an attempt to be down with the kids - certainly the ones likely to be spending money on stationery!

People can start as many threads on whatever subject they like imo. The "pointless" ones often turn out to be the best, but I don't think this one is pointless - there are a number of interesting themes already introduced. People chatting = MN at its best

oh fair enough.
but 'Class A gear' is hardly 'anodyne' is it?

Indeedy, XC - I am having a laugh imagining all the stationary-buying geeks rushing out to get their 'Class A Gear' because a Paperchase circular implied that it's 'cool'!

I'm not saying it's 'pointless' - more just trying to figure out if the OP is amused or outraged?

Twm Class A drugs are definitely not anodyne, quite the opposite. Any Class A chemistry student can tell you that.

Not amused, not outraged. Just think it's yet another aim at the lowest common denominator. They think it's funny and appropriate. I think it's neither.

And yes - the phrase is Grade A, not Class A. So they definitely knew exactly what they were doing.

Yes, I thought it was inappropriate too - I did a double take to see who had sent the email.

Yeah, I was a bit when I opened my emails earlier.

I got that email but didn't get the reference at all

And yes, it's inappropriate.