BMW is forcing a weird Spider-Man ad onto its dashboard displays

BMW is currently experiencing a bit of public backlash after promoting the movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day on many of its display dashboards. A Spider-Man-themed banner appears when a driver starts their car. Once tapped, it transforms into what BMW calls a "festive animation" and a "special surprise" for consumers.

This animation leverages the in-vehicle audio and ambient lighting systems to advertise for the film. It also shows Spidey interacting with a BMW iX3 SUV , as this whole thing looks to be a cross-promotion that markets both Spider-Man: Brand New Day and a related concept vehicle. The appropriately-named BMW iX3 Flow – Spider-Man Brand New Day was developed in "close collaboration with Sony/Marvel" and uses the company's proprietary e-ink vehicle exterior .

The movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day paid BMW to take over the display of every BMW made after 2020.

When you start a BMW, it shows you an ad for Spider Man. Really cheapens BMW imo. https://t.co/ylW3Jgearw pic.twitter.com/OWBBVTMMP3

The display ads started on July 27 and will run on supported BMW vehicles until August 10. This promotion is occurring all over the world, in more than 70 countries.

Nobody likes forced ads, especially when they are being forced into an extremely expensive vehicle. The BMW iX3 SUV, the car that appears in the animation, starts at $61,500. It's one thing to get a cheaper Kindle with lockscreen ads, and a whole other thing to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a luxury vehicle only to be forced to view ads.

In other words, this news has upset customers. There's negative sentiment across social media and message boards . This is a particularly polarizing move for BMW, not just because it's viewed as a luxury brand. Senior Vice President for Connected Company Development Stephan Durach once pushed back hard against the idea that BMW would ever sell ads to display in its cars. "To say I'm selling the screen to play a commercial – I don't see it. It's a private space," he said in 2023, according to a transcription by BMW Blog .

BMW has responded to the consumer outrage, saying that this is just "part of a much broader brand partnership" and that the animation is "only visible to drivers who proactively initiate it on their vehicle's touch screen." While that is technically true, drivers report that the banner to initiate the animation appears automatically.