When I watch the Superbowl, I find that the real entertainment is in between those painfully long quarters of overfed, longhaired, leaping gnomes dancing in the end zone. It’s in the commercials. Advertisers are paying up to $3.8 million make a statement this Sunday, hoping to gain exposure to around 112 million viewers (as in 2012).

One of the most highly anticipated TV ads that will broadcast this Sunday is a Hyundai commercial featuring The Flaming Lips. Whatever you think about bands selling their name to the corporate world for a nice payoff, the Lips have taken the offer and, with new album The Terror coming out April 2nd, are eager to gain exposure to promote themselves and their new music.

In an interview with WBEZ’s Jim DeRogatis, frontman Wayne Coyne stated, “I just go from my own experience. We can all go back to when [the Beatles’] ‘Revolution’ was used in a shoe commercial, but I still think that’s a kick-ass song, and that didn’t change the meaning of the song for me at all. [When we do a commercial,] I’m hoping that we do things that are interesting. And obviously, we want to make money. Who wouldn’t?”

Artists in this position make from anywhere between $100,000 to $1 million. Hopefully that can cover the cost of their wild, fun stage antics, including weird costumes, gigantic human-hamster balls, balloons, confetti cannons, and maybe they can even replace Coyne’s stolen laser hands.

So without any further ado, here’s the Flaming Lips Hyundai ad, debuting a tune called “Sun Blows Up Today.”

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