Virgin Mobile has launched an advertising campaign that uses your webcam to detect when you blink. Now playing on YouTube, Blinkwashing is the final part of networks "Retrain Your Brain" campaign, which calls on consumers to save money by switching to Virgin. The video was created by advertising agency Mother New York, and actually consists of several synchronized clips, all playing the same Virgin-approved message. Each time you blink, it'll switch to a new clip, and the audio stays in sync even mid-word. It's a clever play on the channel switching that many partake in during commercial breaks.

There are 25 separate clips to blink through, including an arguing couple, a high speed police chase, a fake informercial, a murderous woman digging a grave, and a bizarre setup featuring a priest and a sad clown. The concept is that you'll never get the same experience twice; there are apparently millions of possible combinations. We had mixed results with the blink detection, but in a well-lit room with a decent-quality webcam, you shouldn't have too much trouble. If there's a criticism to be made, it's that we found ourselves far more focused on the blinking magic than the commercial's intended message. Virgin Mobile has successfully sold us a gimmick, but it's no closer to putting one of its phones in our pockets.