This is funny -- US advertising people made an ad for the McDonald's Pound Saver menu that gets English slang wrong. Imagine - they put this ad into production, and no one even thought to call up an English person to see if it's correct usage.
Here's the story:
The advert, which promotes the Pound Saver Menu, begins "the pound, also known as a bob", a statement which, strictly speaking, is not true.
Technically, a bob is a term for a shilling, or five pence, and of far less value than a pound.
The American fast food giant's blunder has stirred up some incensed online debate about English currency slang, blaming executives in the US for not properly researching the UK market before broadcasting the advert.
One consumer posted: "I suspect the nearest it got to the UK before transmission was when it was dreamed up in an English themed pub in Hollywood."
Plain English Campaign spokeswoman Marie Clair sympathised with irate members of the public.
"It just doesn't work for me, a bob certainly isn't anything like a pound," she told Sky News Online.
"This terminology is all very confusing, it would be great if we could have someone who could just give us clarity for lunch."
Some customers asked McDonald's to either correct or withdraw the advert, or allow them to purchase items on the Saver Menu for a true bob, or five pence.
McDonald's has responded to complaints with an appeal to the ever-changing English language.
Their spokesperson has posted: "Although a 'bob' was formerly used as a slang term for the shilling until the introduction of decimalisation in 1971, research has shown it is now more commonly used as slang for a pound or money in general.
"As with many words in the English language, the technical meaning of words can change over time and although the word remains in use, what it signifies may develop into something else."
16 comments:
McDonalds lies! No-one has ever used "bob" to refer to money.
Not now, not ever. Never!
Same quality of research as what they sell as food.
Don't you hate it when your comment gets posted twice!
Your comments are so good, TT, that it is great to read them twice!
But TT, didn't you just ask to borrow a bob from me last week?
Why yes, but he was a tall svelte nubile blond! And money never came into the transaction!
bob = shilling as in 10 bob note; I can remember my grandparents using the term frequently.
I used to get two bob a week pocket money. I was rather pleased when it was raised to half a crown. My first wage packet was 7/6d an hour. That's half a crown short of ten bob.
I hate ambiguity! "McDonalds lies! No-one has ever used "bob" to refer to money. Not now, not ever. Never!" needed 'money' to be quoted. It means and always has meant a shilling. It does not mean 'money'
Thanks Tim -- I have NO IDEA what you're talking about as I came on the scene a long time after decimalization.
I enjoy reading what you say because I feel like I'm in the middle of a scene from the Christmas Carol -- you know, when they discuss the price of the turkey.
Google the poem "Thirty Bob a Week" by Scottish Victorian poet John Davidson. Not well known, and some pretty bitter stuff. He'd sort of be the dark side of Bob Cratchit, Elizabeth! If he'd had a little crippled son like Tiny Tim, he'd have said "God damn us every one!" over that Christmas dinner goose/turkey/whatever!
Ah it's easy. A shilling is a bob, and sixpence is a tanner, two of which make up a bob. Two threepenny bits make up a tanner. Two bob is a florin, add a tanner to two bob and you get half a crown. Tow half crowns make a crown, which, while legal tender, was never really used in day to day coinage, but four half crowns make ten bob. And two ten bob notes made a quid.
See! Easy. Now what's 3.75% interest on a bank deposit of £47/9/3d compounded over 15 years?
Now, hard as that is to handle, some of us had to start our education with one system and end it with another, albeit a simpler one
Uhhh. I'm so glad we changed to decimalisation. What does that stuff even mean?
I dunno, Katie T. I'll just stick to dollars and cents and pounds and pence.
Although a bob is never used, and has never been used, to refer to a pound, it has a very specific use referring to an unspecified amount of money.
As in "Look at his new motor - must have cost a bob or two".
Obviously this doesn't refer to a shlling or a pound, but just a lot of money.
But what you can't say is "Do you have any bob on you?" or "I'm a bit short of bob today".
And even that usage refers to shillings. I started drinking beer at 1/2d a pint. Today I'll be lucky to get the same pint for £2.50.
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