Can and Should
Earlier this year, BMW made a bad decision.
They decided it would be a good idea to display a Spider-Man animation on the center screens of certain cars as part of a movie promotion without asking the owners' permission.
The consumer backlash was swift and fierce.
And deserved.
But BMW didn't apologize, and they didn't remove the ad: it ran from July 27 to August 10, 2026, across 70+ countries, before disappearing from dashboard systems.
In fact, they didn't even agree that having the webslinger appear on car dashboards was an ad: they claimed it was a "special surprise" gift to owners, emphasized it was optional (because the full 19-second trailer and flashing interior lighting only triggered after a stationary driver clicked on the screen banner) and defended the brand partnership as part of a larger global marketing tie-in with Marvel and Sony, which included prominent product placement for the BMW iX3 and 5 Series inside the latest Spider-Man film.
Back in 2023, a senior BMW executive said of the car's screen, "It's a private space."
Apparently, "private" means something different these days.
You could argue that no harm was done. A message appeared informing BMW owners of a "Surprise", and if owners didn't want to take action, they could choose to ignore it. It's one message on one screen... what's the big deal, right?
Right. Except take a moment to look around your room and count the screens you see. Now imagine a "surprise" suddenly appeared on every one of them, and you had to go around dismissing the unwanted "gifts" manufacturers chose to bestow upon you.
Still no big deal? Fine. Now imagine the ads started playing automatically, and you had to go around and manually silence each of them.
Most of us have accepted that ads are "everywhere". We accept ads in public spaces because we understand those spaces are for sale, and we tolerate ads on our devices when they're shown to us in exchange for content we want to consume because we understand that watching the ad is the cost of that "free" content.
But an ad showing up on your car's screen is something different. You bought the car, and the screen was included with that purchase. It's unlikely you were offered a discount on your car in exchange for watching ads within it. Your car should be your private space.
Apparently, "private" means something different these days.
Just because you can show an ad on a screen you can access, it doesn't mean you should.
Access to the screen is not permission to use it.
