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Watch Wayne Coyne Sell Cell Phones Using Seafood (and Hypnotism and Colonel Meow)

Flaming Lips Wayne Coyne Virgin Mobile Ad Retrain Your Brain

Wayne Coyne has long had a pretty involved relationship with wacky, a pairing that occasionally veers into the obnoxious (to wit: the guy’s 2012 timeline). But just as often, the Flaming Lips frontman uses weird as a vehicle for brilliance or, at the very least, some good acid-enhanced fun. Falling firmly into that latter category is Virgin Mobile’s new “Retrain Your Brain” ad, which features Coyne using all manner of unusual tactics to hypnotize the viewer into changing his or her cell phone plan. There’s a purring shark, a creepy set of triplets, a TV within a TV, and a whole lot of lobster involved. Oh, and as it turns out, Coyne isn’t the only celeb involved. YouTube users have pointed out that the cat posing as a videographer (you read that right) is in none other than evil feline Internet sensation Colonel Meow. Which helps clarify what this all is really about: Coyne and the World’s Angriest Cat are obviously vying for the loyalty of Richard Branson in a space race that could forever alter the course of humanity.

The Flaming Lips’ new one The Terror is due out April 2.