The news: BMW is running a “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” promotion on the dashboard displays of vehicles built after July 2020, drawing backlash from drivers, per Gizmodo.

• Between July 27 and August 10, a banner appears when drivers in more than 70 countries start their vehicles.
• Tapping it launches a full-screen animation with music tied to the vehicle’s ambient lighting as part of BMW’s marketing partnership with Sony Pictures.

Drivers criticized the placement on social media as out of step with a luxury brand's image. One Reddit user said, “You still see it if you don’t touch anything. This is testing the waters and I’m glad people are voicing outrage.”

Why this matters: BMW is pushing into owned-screen advertising just three years after publicly rejecting the idea. In 2023, BMW Group senior vice president of connected company development Stephan Durach said he didn’t see the company ever selling its dashboard screen to play a commercial, calling the car “a private space.”

That same year, BMW pulled a paid subscription that charged owners to activate already-installed heated seats after facing similar customer backlash.

Implications for marketers and brands: BMW’s in-vehicle ad shows how quickly a promotional experiment on an owned device can turn into a trust problem. Drivers bought their vehicles with no expectation of advertising, and BMW’s own 2023 statement set a standard that the company didn’t uphold.

Brands evaluating owned-screen ad inventory—in vehicles, on appliances, or within other connected hardware—should treat consumer expectations as fixed at the point of purchase. If ads are on the horizon, consumers need a value proposition. Instead of paying more for extra features, users could access them in exchange for ads in a mutually beneficial tradeoff.

Marketers should watch whether BMW scales the Spider-Man placement into a recurring format or treats it as a one-off, since that choice could signal what’s next for the automotive industry.