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BMW is pushing a Spider-Man: Brand New Day promotion onto the Control Displays of compatible vehicles in more than 70 countries.
You might think those who purchased their cars a few years ago would be safe from the onslaught, but that’s not the case. Even drivers of vehicles built as far back as 2020 are being subjected to the ad.
As soon as the car starts, a Spider-Man banner pops up on the center screen: “Surprise! Spider-Man just dropped into your BMW!”
If the driver taps it, they get a full-screen animation with music. In some suitably equipped vehicles, the ad is accompanied by a light show through the ambient lighting system.
The Spider-Man campaign is scheduled to run through August 10, according to BMW’s announcement.
While Spider-Man is an undeniable box-office hit, the ad hasn’t been a hit on BMW dashboards. Owners have taken to X to complain about the in-car promotion.
Venture capitalist Sheel Mohnot said it “really cheapens BMW,” with Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham responding, “I’m never buying a BMW.”
If there’s any bright side to this promotion, it’s that the animation doesn’t play automatically. It’s just the banner ad that appears when the car starts.
BMW told Business Insider that the Festive App, where the banner appears, provides optional themed experiences and “is not a form of advertising.”
However, the animation ends with a title card promoting the movie’s theatrical release, which makes BMW’s denial less than convincing.
What’s unsettling is that a BMW built in 2020 can start up six years later with a movie promotion its owner never asked for.
That can happen because the same connection BMW uses to deliver software fixes and new features also lets it decide what appears on a screen in a vehicle it sold years ago.
BMW Turned a Holiday Greeting System Into a Movie Campaign
BMW didn’t have to build a new delivery system to get the Spider-Man ad in front of its drivers. All it had to do was repurpose the one already built into its vehicles.
Back in 2020, the automaker used the Control Display for Christmas and New Year animations with the same setup: a banner at startup, a full-screen animation, music, and synchronized ambient lighting. The New Year banner appeared automatically up to three times and was available in 41 countries.
The Spider-Man rollout has an even greater reach, with drivers in more than 70 countries getting the ad. That’s about 70% more countries than the 2020 holiday campaign reached.
BMW is now using a feature it once used to send seasonal greetings to promote a Sony Pictures movie.
BMW’s iX3 and 5 Series Sedan do appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and the company created a one-off iX3 with an animated Spider-Man exterior, so the promotion is connected to a larger partnership.
However, sending it into vehicles takes the campaign beyond movie product placement and conventional advertising. Drivers still get to decide whether to open the animation, but they have no say in whether the banner appears on their screen.
BMW Once Called the Car a Private Space
Not long ago, BMW executive Stephan Durach rejected the idea of using a vehicle’s infotainment screen for advertising.
According to MediaPost, during a 2023 roundtable discussion with members of the media, Durach described a car as a “private space” and said he did not see BMW “selling the screen to play a commercial.”
Of course, BMW could argue there’s a difference between using dashboard space to promote its Spider-Man partnership and opening that space to outside advertisers. However, from the driver’s seat, the Spider-Man banner still looks like an ad.
After all, one of BMW’s commercial partners is getting exposure on a screen inside a privately owned car, and the content points drivers toward the movie’s theatrical release. Calling it a themed experience doesn’t make it any less of an ad.
BMW’s U.S. ConnectedDrive terms say the company may use information collected from drivers and their vehicles to provide “relevant in-car or in-app information” and for advertising. What they don’t say is whether BMW plans to turn its dashboards into a permanent ad feed.
Connected-Car Systems Keep Automakers in Control After the Sale
BMW’s promotional materials for iDrive call it more than a display. The system includes vehicle controls, networked services, third-party apps, cloud services, software updates, and ConnectedDrive upgrades.
Drivers use it for navigation, media, vehicle settings, and communications, while some features can be purchased and installed after the car leaves the dealership.
According to BMW’s investor materials, 22 million of its vehicles are connected to the BMW Cloud, while 7.4 million were capable of receiving remote software upgrades as of 2024.
Not every vehicle qualifies for the Spider-Man campaign, but the numbers show how large a direct channel BMW has built into cars already on the road.
Over-the-air connections can be useful for fixing software, improving features, and saving owners a trip to the dealership. However, that convenience leaves the automaker in charge of what shows up on a vehicle’s screen.
BMW isn’t the first automaker to test the same boundary. Stellantis sent vehicle-discount offers to Jeep, Ram, and Chrysler infotainment screens in 2025.
The company told The Drive that it uses in-vehicle messages to “stay in contact with our owners at critical points in their ownership” and said that customers could call to opt out. Jeep drivers have also received extended-warranty promotions through their screens.
BMW hasn’t said anything about whether it has plans to build a permanent dashboard advertising business. Still, the Spider-Man campaign has established a precedent. A connected system designed to update and improve a car can also send promotions to it years after purchase.
The Spider-Man banner is going away after August 10. However, BMW’s access to the Control Display will not.
And that’s a lesson for all of us. We may own the car, but the automaker still controls much of the software and what appears on its connected display long after we drive it off the lot.
