Coffee Bean S’pore Used China Navy Soldier Image to Promote SAF Day Promotion

So, SAF Day is coming.

Just so you know, as an NSman in the SAF, all I care about is the promotions since I won’t need to rehearse countless times for a parade that no one bothers.

And businesses all over Singapore know that there are people like me, so they’re finding ways to grab my attention.

I feel so important all of a sudden.

Like, for example, this by Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, or more commonly known as Coffee Bean to us.

Wow, a 50% off ice-blended drink! Island-wide somemore! I’m so going to head down to an outlet next week and—

Wait, it turned out that something is wrong with the image.

Something just doesn’t feel right…and then it occurred to me.

WTF is that camo? Didn’t this guy’s encik once told him that camo is an Adidas logo with three stripes and not just one on the cheek?

Editor: Not that, you idiot.

Then what!?

Editor: You sure that’s a Singapore soldier?

Of course—oh, wait…now it makes sense.

It’s a soldier from China, or more specifically, from the People’s Liberation Army Navy.

Big Mistake from Coffee Bean Singapore

Now, if even I, who’s worn both the old uniform and the new one, can mistake this as the uniform for the Singapore Navy or RSAF (I was pretty sure it wasn’t from SAF since it’s not green), the folks in Coffee Bean must’ve thought they got it right as well.

But unlike me who just glanced at that soldier and immediately focused on the promotion, I’m sure those marketing folks had passed this image around for approvals before it was uploaded online.

And if I just look at it for a few more seconds, I spot the mistake immediately:

Our current uniform does not have epaulettes for us to keep our beret.

Unless things have changed so drastically that SAF or S’pore Navy or RSAF has changed their main assault rifle, I can tell immediately that it’s not the SAR21 we use. Heck, it doesn’t even look like the M16 we used to hold back in my days in BMT.

Needless to say, the people who designed the image and approved it are either all

• Females
• Foreigners
• Guys who serve in the Home Team

Unfortunately, this team only spotted it after it was posted with angry comments, and they took it down immediately, posting an apology soon after.

And to play safe, they didn’t even bother to ask BuffLord95 to model for them; they just used this instead.

I’ve looked at it for minutes and can confirm this: that’s an image of an ice-blended kopi and not a soldier.

Moral of the story?

Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Because we’ve videos like this, whereby we educate people more about NS in Singapore:

And yes, that ugly host is wearing the correct uniform.