Everybody makes mistakes. Even (especially?) marketers.
Unfortunately, thanks to this thing called the internet, those mistakes are pretty much guaranteed to be seen, shared, and mocked in the year of our lord 2019.
Just ask Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Singapore, which was the source of a little confusion and a lot of jokes after recently promoting a discount coffee deal for Singapore Armed Forces members using a picture of — wait for it — a sailor in China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy.
Oh, the dangers of Google image searches.
“Our SAF Day Celebration artwork that went out earlier was incorrect. We sincerely apologise for the mistake. Thank you very much for your comments and kind understanding,” the coffee chain wrote on its Facebook page after yanking the post on Saturday.
The deal, by the way, offered a sweet 50 percent off all small, ice-blended drinks for national servicemen who showed their ID cards or simply rocked up in uniform. Not that anyone was talking about ice-blended drinks.
“I always serve my country in uniform with pride and honor but sadly some people can’t recognize our contribution. WITH MY LIFE!!!!” wrote one slightly overwrought Singaporean on Twitter.
“Ohhhh damn cbtl just lost a lot of customers!” wrote another, using the non-capped acronym for Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf that he just invented.
Others, however, saw the blunder as a chance to ask “cbtl” to make it up to them by putting their small, ice-blended coffee where their apologizing mouths were.
Within a few hours, the team at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Singapore had shared a new promotional post, one that featured an ice-blended drink, and no soldier.
While some on Facebook defended the coffee chain, other eagle-eyed netizens spotted yet another mistake in the new post. This time, it was grammatical. You just can’t win in 2019.
But wait, there’s more.
Plot twist: Just a couple days later, the Republic of Singapore Navy, jumping in on the buzz surrounding the gaffe, did a shout out on Facebook yesterday celebrating SAF Day as well. And with the appropriate uniform, too. The post, which quickly went viral, announced their “100% commitment” to “defending our everyday.” No discount here, but they get full marks for effort.
In a cheeky footnote, they also took another jab at Coffee Bean with a little nugget of information, claiming that approximately seven million kilograms of coffee were shipped to Singapore by sea last year.
Savage roast. We like.
