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BMW Owners Angry ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Ads Are Suddenly in Their Cars: “F*** This”
BMW owners are furious after the automaker began pushing adverts for "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" onto their dashboard screens, with many decrying the move as intrusive and unwanted. The ads, part of a promotional tie-in between BMW and Sony-Marvel, appear as a banner when the car is started, drawing accusations that BMW is normalising in-car advertising despite previously insisting it would never sell dashboard ad space.
The campaign began last week and is due to run until 10 August, affecting newer-model vehicles including cars costing up to $160,000. Angry drivers took to Reddit's r/BMW forum, with comments comparing the stunt to Apple's widely criticised 2014 move of force-loading a U2 album onto millions of iTunes accounts, and branding it "dystopian." BMW's press release described the video as a "special surprise," and the film itself features BMW product placement, though the company has not responded to the backlash.
In short
- BMW pushed unsolicited Spider-Man ads to owners' dashboard screens
- Promotion runs until 10 August as part of a Sony-Marvel tie-in
- Owners compare it to Apple's 2014 forced U2 album backlash
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Connected car services operate under agreed terms of service that customers accept when purchasing these vehicles, and BMW's limited promotional partnership represents reasonable monetisation comparable to how other digital services operate. The company needs sustainable revenue to develop and maintain the features that customers value, and a single notification for a major film release is far less intrusive than the surveillance advertising or traditional advertisements consumers encounter elsewhere. This approach allows BMW to enhance connected services for all customers without raising vehicle prices.
The case against
BMW made explicit, well-publicised commitments never to monetise dashboard advertising, and customers specifically chose BMW partly based on this promise. Deploying advertisements to personal vehicles without affirmative consent violates that trust relationship, particularly when owners paid premium prices for these vehicles. This establishes a dangerous precedent for increasingly aggressive in-car monetisation going forward.
Explained simply
BMW is a German carmaker whose newer vehicles use dashboard screens to show information and entertainment features. Sony and Marvel make the Spider-Man films, and companies sometimes work together to promote films through products or advertising.
In this case, the film promotion has appeared on some BMW screens when drivers start their cars. The dispute has drawn attention to how much control carmakers should have over what appears on a vehicle’s built-in displays, particularly when owners have paid a high price for the car.
Art Culture Entertainment Film Spider-Man: Brand New Day