BMW Sends Spider-Man Ad to Car Screens, and Drivers Aren't Happy

BMW owners are getting a movie tie-in they didn't ask for. For nearly two weeks, vehicles built after July 2020 with BMW OS 7 or newer will show a Spider-Man: Brand New Day button on the center screen. Tapping it plays a short animation of Spider-Man swinging around a city and looking at an iX3 before pulling down the screen to reveal a BMW logo and a message that the movie is only in theaters.

The promotion runs from July 28 through August 10 and reaches vehicles in more than 70 countries.

The ad comes from a Sony partnership announced late last month. BMW is heavily featured in the film, with multiple cars involved in actual plot points, and there was also a one-off iX3 with full-color E Ink at the premiere. " That's accurate, but the digital Spider-Man button is still sitting on the screen.

The spokesperson did not answer whether customers can opt out, and BMW did not rule out doing similar ads in the future.

The reaction isn't warm. A Reddit thread and a YouTube Short showing the setup are filled with unhappy users calling for it to be removed. Unlike BMW's earlier heated seat subscription experiment, which was limited to one market and not meant for broader adoption, there are no such claims this time.

CarBuzz argues this sets a bad precedent: a car is something you pay a lot for, not an ad-supported platform like TV or websites.