Did you go to their signup page? They had one that said "watch this ad clip to reveal the security code" and you had to watch the video to get the code to enter.

Interesting idea, but I would never watch an ad clip to signup for something nor would I want my users to have to.

and yet you will gladly type randomized and difficult to read letters or words?

This is actually attempting to solve two problems at once, and in some ways it could be more interesting to the user if the ads are well targetted.

Why not help the site owner make a bit of $$??? are you really afraid that typing in a bit of ad copy is going to turn you into a mindless drone

I'd rather type random characters than "Safer Browsing" for an IE ad. You have to consider the emotional reaction to these ads.

What about the refresh button?

You've got the nail on the head. Capatcha publishing sites are already weeding out the idiots who will jump through hoops to join and blog comment argument or whatever it is - now they can sell the idiots to the highest bidder. Even if they get more spam, the idiot just earnt them cold hard cash in exchange for the spam, and you can still go back to solving spam the non-capatcha way.

It's evil, but evil in a kind of clinically beautiful way. I'd say it stands a good chance of working in the short term too - like punch they monkey ads made a lot of money for some people back in the day

If the site owner is going to make money of that, then the only reason it is economically feasible to do so is if the brand owner gets at least that from the value of showing me their ad.

The only way to do that is if it works.

So yeah, I am concerned.