BMW Displaying Ads on Car Screens

Last month we brought you news of LG monitors silently installing an app that then showed you advertisements for McAfee. In this month’s edition of “Ads You Didn’t Ask For,” BMW vehicles are displaying a banner for the new Spider-Man movie. Clicking on the banner will display a short, full-screen animated clip promoting the company’s tie-in with the new movie. BMW is calling this a “special surprise for drivers,” while many of those drivers are calling this a blatant advertisement. The pop-up was available for about two weeks earlier this month on 2021 and newer cars. This isn’t the first time BMW has experimented with monetizing their vehicles post-purchase. In 2020 they announced heated seats would be available by subscription. Clearly the hardware was already part of the car, but buyers had to pay a monthly fee if they wanted to unlock that feature. That plan was scrapped a few years later due to public backlash. If the past is any indication of the future, companies in general will continue to look for ways to generate more revenue from consumers, either directly through subscriptions or indirectly through ads. If you know of another situation where unexpected advertising popped up, let us know and we might make it another installment of “Ads You Didn’t Ask For!”