# McDonald's Ad : "You better don't," **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 16, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700 "2004-09-16T15:26:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/1 "2004-09-16T15:26:57Z")
There’s this McDonalds commercial where someone gets close to this black lady’s chicken tenders and she says, “you better don’t”. I’m not offended or anything. I’m just really suprised they would write that. What’s next, a black guy in the commercial saying “I be lovin’ it.” ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/2 "2004-09-16T15:41:30Z")
That’s nothing. A local comedian noted that the Indiana Black Expo’s website is [www.ibeonline.com](http://www.ibeonline.com). Which is unfortunate, because the IBE is a fantastic event, and a huge deal here in Indy. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/3 "2004-09-16T16:00:33Z")
Actually, this doesn’t surprise me. This is the type of situation where someone is going to feel slighted, no matter what you do. It’s a “danged if you do, danged if you don’t” situation. If the black person speaks with less-than-stellar grammar, some will complain that it’s a stereotype. If that same person speaks with impeccable English, others will complain that she’s not being a genuine black, or that she doesn’t accurately represent the African-American population. Heck, just look at all the flak that Wayne Brady and Bill Cosby get for allegedly “acting white.” ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/4 "2004-09-16T16:21:28Z")
The solution is obvious then: no more casting of minorities in speaking roles. Ever. What? ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/5 "2004-09-16T16:28:37Z")
I cringe every time I see that ad. That, and any ad for [Boost Mobile](http://www.boostmobile.com/home.html), whose tag line is “Where you at?” When bad English is deliberately used in commercials, it gives it credibility and increases the likelihood of it becoming acceptable. IMHO, “ignorant” is not the same as “colloquial.” > [@JThunder](#): > > If that same person speaks with impeccable English, others will complain that she’s not being a genuine black, or that she doesn’t accurately represent the African-American population. I don’t think that’s the case here: the woman on the plane could have said “you better not!” in the same tone of voice, with the same look on her face, and still come across as plenty “black.” ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/6 "2004-09-16T16:32:28Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > What’s next, a black guy in the commercial saying “I be lovin’ it.” Heh… it certainly would serve its purpose as an advertisement; on my end, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Jenny\_Haniver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Jenny\_Haniver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenny_Haniver)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/7 "2004-09-16T17:05:09Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I’m just really suprised they would write that. I’m really suprised that of all the people it takes to make a commerical, nobody figured out that the message of this one is basically, “McDonalds: Better Than Airline Food.” :dubious: Damning with faint praise, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/8 "2004-09-16T17:16:11Z")
There’s a lot wrong with this commercial. Shoot, I’ve gotten fast food in an airport before, but I never waited through boarding before I started eating it. Also, I think “you better don’t” can be construed as threantening a stewardness. How can we allow the use of such aggression to sell food in this post 9-11 world? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/9 "2004-09-16T17:38:37Z")
Well, if that ad for chicken whatevers inaccurately portrays black people as poorly speaking of the english, the previous ads for the same products inaccurately protrayed white people as paranoid delusional fruitcakes. At least they’re being consistent in their portrayals of American life. For this reason, I wouldn’t set foot in one of their restaurants except as an absolute last resort. ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/10 "2004-09-17T00:32:14Z")
She wasn’t speaking poor English, she was being funny - on purpose. She crammed together two perfectly acceptable phrases - “no you don’t!” and “you better not!” - into one with hillarious results. My female peers do stuff like that all the time to be cute. That familiarity is what made it funny. You guys obviously weren’t the audience for it, so just forget about it. And if they were savvy enough to write “you better don’t”, they’d be savvy enough not to write “I be lovin’ it”, because that doesn’t even make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/11 "2004-09-17T00:52:55Z")
No, I’m pretty sure she was speaking poor English. “You better don’t!” is right up there with regional usage variations like “I might could make it work” or “You’d better ought to change out the power supply” or “Let’s don’t play with scissors around the rare yarn, honey.” It’s poor English, but it’s also [widespread](http://hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/staticmaps/q_53.html). Check out all the dots on that map! You might could count them if the map were a little bigger . 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/12 "2004-09-16T20:40:46Z")
> [@Jurph](#): > > No, I’m pretty sure she was speaking poor English. “You better don’t!” is right up there with regional usage variations like “I might could make it work” or “You’d better ought to change out the power supply” or “Let’s don’t play with scissors around the rare yarn, honey.” It’s poor English, but it’s also [widespread](http://hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/staticmaps/q_53.html). Check out all the dots on that map! > > You might could count them if the map were a little bigger . 😃 Get a sense of humor. Where’s the thread railing against “Toys R Us”? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/13 "2004-09-16T20:53:50Z")
> [@](#): > > She crammed together two perfectly acceptable phrases - “no you don’t!” and “you better not!” > [@](#): > > the woman on the plane could have said “you better not!” in the same tone of voice, with the same look on her face, and still come across as plenty “black.” While I’ll grant that “you better not” is not as bad as “you better don’t”, have we really sunk so far as to think that the former is correct? Last I knew, the correct for would be “you’d better not”, as in, the contracted form of “you had better not”. (and since I’m posting about grammer, it’s prudent to here make the obligatory reference to **Guadere**.) ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/14 "2004-09-16T20:55:25Z")
> [@Jurph](#): > > No, I’m pretty sure she was speaking poor English. “You better don’t!” is right up there with regional usage variations like “I might could make it work” or “You’d better ought to change out the power supply” or “Let’s don’t play with scissors around the rare yarn, honey.” It’s poor English, but it’s also [widespread](http://hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/staticmaps/q_53.html). Check out all the dots on that map! > > You might could count them if the map were a little bigger . 😃 But she wasn’t speaking regional usage - she made a _joke_. It’s a _joke_ - not a mistake, not a colloquialism, not a dialect - a _joke_. That’s why you’re supposed to laugh - _with_ her - because it’s a joke. Maybe the presence of the ebonics idea makes it kind of confusing, but yes, it’s possible for a black person to _purposefully_ mangle language for a comedic effect. And if somebody does something and achieves her desired effect, it’s not appropriate to say that she’s done anything poorly. For example, a craftsman who makes a collapsable chair for a movie prop that actually collapses when its supposed to has not built the chair poorly. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/15 "2004-09-16T23:37:03Z")
In case it’s not obvious, my post starting with “While I’ll grant you…” and apparently **pizzabrat** ’s post starting with “But she wasn’t speaking regional usage…” are correctly timestamped, but **pizzabrat** ’s post starting with “She wasn’t speaking poor English, she was being funny…” and **Jurph** ’s post starting with “No, I’m pretty sure she was speaking poor English.” were incorrectly timestamped. Both of them were before mine, shortly before 4:00 PM CDT. So I was actually quoting **pizzabrat** after he posted. ---
**Author:** ![Dragonblink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/16 "2004-09-16T23:49:06Z")
I’ve had a long day, so imagine that I’ve posted the standard linguist’s rant about declaring a genuine dialect to be wrong, poor, uneducated etc. Also insert helpful information about Black Vernacular English/African American Vernacular English and how rich its morphology is. Did you know there are subtle differences in the AAVE use of the word “be” similar to the two forms of “be” in Spanish? Where’s the uproar over the lack of a final g in “I’m _lovin’_ it?” ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/17 "2004-09-17T00:08:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > While I’ll grant that “you better not” is not as bad as “you better don’t”, have we really sunk so far as to think that the former is correct? Last I knew, the correct for would be “you’d better not”, as in, the contracted form of “you had better not”. > > (and since I’m posting about grammer, it’s prudent to here make the obligatory reference to **Guadere**.) Heh, oops. If only I were clever enough to properly take advantage of this thread’s chonological posting error… ---
**Author:** ![BoringDad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ad7895/32.png) [@BoringDad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoringDad)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2004, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/18 "2004-09-17T04:33:25Z")
I’m offended that McDonalds does not pronounce the g in I’m loving it. In fact, I’m ouraged. No, even more, I’m uproarious! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/19 "2004-09-17T04:35:21Z")
I don’t hold with it. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700/20 "2004-09-18T11:59:51Z")
> [@Jurph](#): > > No, I’m pretty sure she was speaking poor English. “You better don’t!” is right up there with regional usage variations like “I might could make it work” or “You’d better ought to change out the power supply” or “Let’s don’t play with scissors around the rare yarn, honey.” It’s poor English, but it’s also [widespread](http://hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/staticmaps/q_53.html). Check out all the dots on that map! If it’s a regional variation, it’s not “poor English”. No dialect is inherently superior to another. Some may be more acceptable or proper _in a given situation_, but someone who speaks their own dialect correctly is not speaking English badly. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-ad-you-better-dont/264700.md?page=2)