In Photos dot Org

I shot this on Princes Street in Cork back in 2016, and I had it filed in my head all this time as a Starbucks-versus-Starbucks gag. The wellness sermon in the window was contradicted by the Frappuccino in the hand.

Turns out the window belongs to Rocket Man, a salad and juice bar, which means the slogan is just an honest pitch for what’s inside. The joke isn’t the shop being two-faced; it’s the woman walking past it with a competitor’s plastic cup and a New Look bag, completely uninterested in being nourished, satisfied or energised on Rocket Man’s terms. Three brands sharing a frame, none of them in agreement.

The black-and-white striped barrier slices the scene in half like a referee, the leather jacket and ripped jeans give the date away within a year, and the lower-case earnestness of the window text feels very 2016 indeed. Ten years on, the Frappuccino lid is the same shape, the uniform has barely shifted, and I owe Rocket Man a small apology for misreading their window.

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