Hotels.com introduced its somewhat irritating spokesperson "Captain Obvious" to the U.K. last year in a campaign in which he literally skipped with a jump rope in the skippable version of one of its ads.

Now, the brand is riffing on ad blocking in a new campaign in conjunction with broadcaster Channel 4 and its online portal All4. Today (Mar. 6), all All4 viewers who are served the latest Hotels.com ads will be given the option to "block" them and when doing so will see Captain Obvious physically obstructing the advert, with the help of props including dry ice and giant foam hands, until the ad has played in full.

The campaign, by Crispin Porter + Bogusky's London office and brokered by media agency m/SIX,, will also see the character "blocking" Channel 4's own ads promoting popular series "Peep Show," "Misfits" and "Gogglebox."

Dan Watts, chief creative officer at CP+B London, comments in a statement: "Forget A.I, Hotels.com is clearly leading the way in online tech, with its pioneering use of giant foam hands and smoke bombs. I look forward to seeing what else Captain Obvious brings to the digital forum in 2018."