BMW’s Spider-Man Ad Backlash Proves Nobody Learned Anything from Apple’s U2 Blunder
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Many BMW drivers found themselves upset after they started their vehicles this week only to see an ad for Spider-Man: Brand New Day swing onto their in-car infotainment systems. The ad first appears on the system’s screen, and when tapped, plays a full-screen nineteen-second animated ad with music and a light show.
The ad started showing up in BMW vehicles on July 27, and the campaign is expected to run in more than 70 markets through August 10. The ad will show up on vehicles built after July 2020 that have the BMW Operating System 7 or newer.
BMW announced the ad campaign in late July, saying the “exclusive Spider-Man animation” was a “special surprise” for BMW owners:
To celebrate the partnership with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, BMW has a special surprise for its drivers. […] Starting the car brings up a special banner in the Control Display. Clicking on it then activates the Spider-Man animation, comprising a full-screen festive animation in the Control Display with aptly chosen backing music and an accompanying light show courtesy of the ambient lighting system.
How do BMW drivers feel about getting an unsolicited ad for a superhero movie when they start their $100,000 car? Well, how do the phrases “classless and tacky” and “disgusting” sound? To say that BMW drivers are not happy about the prospect of more ads in the future would be an understatement. Why, they’re almost as mad as Apple customers were when a U2 album was forced upon them. (More on that in a bit.)
BMW owners on Reddit are expressing their displeasure with the ad showing up on their vehicles’ screens, saying they would appreciate an opt-out button for the ad. Although it should be noted that while the notification for the Spider-Man movie ad has been automatically rolled out to compatible vehicles, users can avoid viewing the ad by not tapping it when presented with the notification. The ad has also been added to the in-car system’s Festive app.
“Paying 50-100k for a car, yet still getting ADs…next we need adblocker for cars i guess?” said Reddit user YayYoh.
“It wasn’t cute for halloween or christmas either,” said hey-Oliver. “Anyone with any semblance of awareness knew that dumb holiday spirit horsesh*t was a tester for this advertisement garbage. Fu*k a holiday, if I buy a $80,000 car, the last thing I want is that car to be DM inbox for ads and corporate messages.”
Others campaigned for an opt-out button, and predicted more ads would be shown in the future.
DrSuperZeco said “They’re just starting. Why do you think they removed the screen from the driver and put it in front of the passenger? So they can run ads throughout your journey.”
User MunchmaquichiCaps wishes BMW would spend their development money on more important things. “Less money on advertisement creation and implementation, more money on transfer case and front differential replacements, plez. – X7 owner”
User JJonahJameson said “The ad is a menace, and it must be stopped!” (Okay, that one never actually happened).
It was inevitable that some Redditors would compare the sticky situation to a previous time when users had something forced upon them. In 2014, Apple and U2 partnered to celebrate the band’s newly released album Songs of Innocence, making it free to all iTunes users. That sounded okay on the surface, except it was automatically loaded onto everyone’s iPhones — whether they wanted it or not — and you couldn’t easily delete it, either. Even if you deleted it from your device, it would still be sitting in your purchase history. Less than a week after the announcement, Apple was forced to tacitly admit how bad of an idea this had been and offer an SOI Removal tool for those who wanted to eradicate it from their music libraries.
U2 lead singer Bono eventually apologized, telling Rolling Stone that they’d gotten “carried away” with themselves.
For its part, BMW told The Autopian the Spider-Man animation is not an ad and is instead a “part of a broader brand partnership with the film.” BMW vehicles also make strategic appearances in the new Spider-Man movie. SYNERGY!
As John Gruber points out at Daring Fireball, BMW promised in late 2023 that it would not sell advertising on its in-car displays. While BMW had pushed animated holiday videos to vehicles in the past, this time around the video is just too close to being an advertisement for many BMW owners to be comfortable with.
