RAF chiefs shot down for utilizing Gen Z slang as if it is ‘promoting trainers to teenagers’ amid one in all its worst recruiting crises
RAF chiefs have been shot down for using ‘Gen Z’ slang to lure the young in one of its worst recruiting crises in recent history.
An RAF video on Instagram to promote Cosford airshow in Shropshire describes it as ‘very mindful, very considerate, very demure’ – a reference to a post on social media which has become an internet catchphrase.
The video, which has thousands of likes, features Squadron Leader Chris Wilson of RAF Cosford reading a script written by a ‘Gen Z marketing expert’ – born between 1997 and 2012.
He calls the airshow ‘the dopest event of 2025’ which is ‘giving main character energy’. He adds: ‘Tired of cheugy Air Shows with no rizz? Aight bet. Cosford hits different.’ He closes the film with, ‘Slay. Feeling boujee?’
The slang evokes TV’s The Armstrong And Miller Show in which RAF pilots from World War Two speak in upper class accents but use modern teenage slang such as ‘blud’ and pepper speech with ‘like’ and ‘innit’.
One former RAF member said on Instagram of its new video: ‘It isn’t clever, it’s sad. Is this the standard the RAF wishes to set?
‘Please reflect on your traditions and history, you are a combat arm of the nation’s military, not selling trainers to sixth formers.’
Another wrote: ‘The Battle of Britain to this, just makes everyone who serves embarrassed.’
An RAF video on Instagram to promote Cosford airshow in Shropshire describes it as ‘very mindful, very considerate, very demure’
Last month Defence Secretary John Healey warned that for the past year, the Armed Forces have been losing 300 more full-time personnel each month than they have been recruiting
Colonel Philip Ingram, a former Army Intelligence officer, said: ‘Whoever is advising them of communications strategy, never mind who signed this video off for release, needs to be removed from post immediately.’
The furore comes as instructors at the Royal Navy’s HMS Raleigh training centre in Torpoint, Cornwall, have been given a glossary of Gen Z terms so they can talk to young people.
The leaflet asks: ‘Are you able to communicate with everyone: English? Jack Speak (slang used by the Royal Navy)? Gen Z?’
It lists dozens of words they may need to know including ‘cheugy’, which describes ‘uncool things that are either out of style or trying too hard to be in style’.
Other key words are ‘slay’, which means ‘succeeding or looking great’ and ‘swag’, which translates as ‘confidence or charm’.
If someone is ‘boujee’, it means they love the ‘luxury and comforts of a fancy lifestyle’, it adds.
The Royal Navy, Army and RAF are understrength and have failed to meet their recruiting targets every year for the last ten years.
Last month Defence Secretary John Healey warned that for the past year, the Armed Forces have been losing 300 more full-time personnel each month than they have been recruiting.
‘In the last year, service morale fell to record lows,’ he added.
