German automaker BMW is facing a wave of backlash after drivers discovered movie advertisements – specifically, the theatrical release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day – appeared on their vehicles’ dashboard screens, despite automaker previously promised that ads will not reach their dashboards.
BMW Drivers Hit With Unwarranted Ads
Starting July 27, 2026, BMW began rolling out a promotional tie-in for Spider-Man: Brand New Day to owners in more than 70 countries – when drivers start their cars, a special banner appears on the vehicle’s Control Display. Clicking it activates a full-screen animation with backing music and an accompanying light show through the vehicle’s ambient lighting system.
The tie-in is found on “suitably equipped” BMWs built after July 2020 running BMW Operating System 7, 8, 8.5, 9, or X, and if you dislike it, bad luck, you’ll have to wait until August 10 when the ads eventually go offline. If you wondered what’s the deal with all of these – the automaker struck a deal with the movie where its vehicles are featured throughout the film, and in return, the movie ads appear on real-life BMW dashboards.
Let’s just say those who paid for BMWs are rather furious with this move. We as humans already are bombarded with ads as it is today, so advertisers taking over another display to show ads is not going to be popular by any means, much less so if they were promised no ads would ever show up when owners pay big money for it. Mind you, the automaker hasn’t had the best track record when it comes to integrating digital features – heated seats was at one point a monthly subscription despite all the reasons in the world to prove that it was an insane idea to begin with.
Pokdepinion: It’s just like Microsoft, they do not care you technically paid for Windows licenses with laptop purchases, they are still going to push ads to your eyeballs anyway.
