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I've not seen this before. Looks more like visual artefacting from a graphics processing error to me on first glance.

Where was this specific ad? Might try to find one in the wild myself?

If it is a QR code it seems like maybe some kind of proprietary watermarking tech to track ads for some very specific purpose. My phone either can't lock onto it or can't read it.

I see them all the time. Here’s an example on drudgereport. https://imgur.com/a/hOl9x2m

I am using an iPhone 13 browsing via chrome. iOS 17.0

Also occurs in safari

What happens if you take a photo of the ad? Does it takes you to the website?

drive by exploits