As the mini posting spree continues, a result of what seems like a now-monthly resolution to “post more of that stuff that’s otherwise just sitting around” during a slow news week, we have “Life Imitates Music,” a 2002 MTV commercial spot for a non-existent band called “The Lack” who make an album cover using photobooth strips.
It fulfills all of the conventions of the photobooth-based TV commercial: the photobooth, standing alone in a well-lit room with checkboard floor and a kiddie ride nearby, with young people mugging inside, seen from the perspective of the photobooth camera as well as from outside, half-obscured by the curtain. With a soundtrack, though somewhat mangled, by the Strokes, the brief spot has a nice energy to it but seems somewhat pointless — though we probably shouldn’t complain when an ad doesn’t actually seem to be advertising anything.