BMW pushed a Spider-Man clip into car infotainment screens without an explicit opt in.
Owners say the surprise pop up feels like ad supported hardware inside a premium car.
BMW calls it a festive animation, but many drivers see a third party movie promotion.
BMW pushed a Spider-Man: Brand New Day animation straight into owners' central Control Displays, and many of them say they were never asked first. The clip was baked into BMW's native infotainment software and ran from July 27 to August 10 in more than 70 countries, a rollout Hollywood trade coverage, including The Hollywood Reporter, tracked alongside the film's broader marketing blitz.
Screenshots have been circulating as owners call the pop up intrusive and compare it to ad supported gadgets they never signed up for. BMW describes the clip as a festive Spider-Man animation delivered through its Festive App and part of a wider Sony and Marvel tie in, and it insists this does not count as advertising, but plenty of drivers reject that distinction when a movie promotion appears in a car they already paid for.
