BMW drew the ire of many autojournalists and, presumably, some car owners when it put what was essentially an advertisement for the new Spider-Man movie in its new electric cars. While this was ultimately a minor thing that could quickly be ignored, what it portended felt major. For an enthusiast, a car is an escape from brands and, yet, here was a brand forcing its way into a car.
It doesn’t even matter that Spider-Man is a relatively beloved character. I’d argue that the fact that there was such a knee-jerk reaction to something so uncontroversial just goes to show that the fear of what the future may bring is extremely real.
Rivian has done something similar with another franchise people generally like, and yet almost no one seems to be complaining. There’s a good lesson in this, I think.
Busting Makes Owners Feel Good
Above is a commercial featuring Bill Murray (click here to view on YouTube if it didn’t embed) as Dr. Peter Venkman, driving around in a Rivian R1 made to look like the Ecto-1 from the Ghostbusters films (it’s called the Ecto-R1). He comes upon his old nemesis/frenemy Slimer, who has broken into someone’s home to clean out the fridge. With a click of a button, he’s able to capture the Class 5 Full Roaming Vapor and toss him in the Rivian’s frunk.
Carmakers and moviemakers often do tie-ups, and no one seems to begrudge either party. The difference between a normal promo and this is that you can actually get the Ecto-R1 features seen in the commercial in your Rivian as part of the company’s annual Halloween Mode.
Here’s Rivian on what that entails:
Lights & Sounds
Select between Ecto-1, Proton Pack, Slimer, Ghost Trap, Peter Venkman, or Random. Each pairs custom exterior LED sequences with iconic soundscapes. Trigger a show on demand or enable Motion Mode to let your vehicle react whenever someone walks past.Custom Lock Sounds
Swap your lock sound to Ecto-1 on R1 Gen 1 or choose between Ecto-1, Proton Pack, or Chant on R1 Gen 2 and R2.Scavenger Hunt
Interactive clue cards send you hunting for hidden characters tucked inside familiar screens—Drive Modes, Gear Guard settings, side cameras, and the Energy app. Uncovering a Ghost Guard or Slimer character triggers a unique animation and audio.Voice Assistant
Rivian Assistant picks up a distinctively eerie tone for the season. Ask it to run an exterior light show, read a hunt clue, or play a specific sound effect.‘Mallow Mash
A center-screen arcade experience where you pop Mini-Pufts marshmallow men against the clock while parked.
That’s fun. The app also gets some cool updates, and if you select this mode your car looks like Ecto-1 when it appears in the main info screen. The external lights also have a spooky theme if requested.
It’s all extremely charming, and the ’60s Cadillac-style gauge is fun. A lot of other automakers are playing around with interesting gauges, as Ford has done this via an OTA update to Mustangs and Volkswagen is planning to launch new cars with these features built-in. This is one of the reasons why I’m ok with digital gauge clusters.
Why This Is Ok And BMW’s Isn’t
Looking at the official Rivian Reddit page shows that consumers seem generally pleased by this change, with the lead comment saying “I am totally geeking out over it.” As you can see in the video above, the Rivian community is generally quite stoked about this as well.
What’s different from what BMW did, other than Ghostbusters is a better movie?
Assuming you have the right updates on the vehicle software and mobile app (R2 is 2026.36.40 version and R1 is 2026.36.0.), you’ll get a prompt asking if you’d like to “hunt some ghosts” and you can go from there. The BMW version, to be fair, wasn’t that different. You got a prompt, and if you selected it, you got a short BMW ad and a little light show in your car. From BMW:
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.
That’s it! A little ad. Congrats, you paid money for a little advertisement in your car. Big whoop.
What Rivian did with Sony Pictures, more than anything, was deliver value well and above what BMW offered. Sure, there’s an implicit ad for Ghostbusters (though, is there even a movie coming out?) buried within all this, and if you don’t care about Halloween or Ghostbusters then none of this will appeal to you. You also have the right to ignore it.
“Halloween Mode demonstrates the power of Rivian software. New features and drive modes arrive overnight, right in your driveway… with a little extra spooky fun added in,” says Wassym Bensaid, Chief Software Officer for Rivian.
If you are the least bit interested, though, then there’s a ton of stuff to play with that is completely thought through and, because of the way Rivian controls its own software, significantly transforms your vehicle. Nothing is free these days except for advertising, and even then I’m paying Netflix to see ads. This is such a delightful and thorough addition that the heavy branding doesn’t really bother me.
Rivian made their own Ecto-1 and, frankly, that’s fun. If BMW had somehow managed to turn its new EV into a version of the Manx-like Spider-Mobile, I think people would be less upset.
Finally, Rivian did a nice job of advertising the fact that this was coming, so it wasn’t a shock to some owners. If you’re an R1S or R1T owner, it’s possible you didn’t clock the hubbub and were surprised. I somehow missed this (though I’m not an owner) even though it happened last week. A quick search would have explained what was happening, and Rivian has done Halloween Mode in the past, so I think I’d have felt less irked.
So what’s the lesson here? If you run a car company and want to surprise your owners, you better delight them, too. Don’t just show them an ad and flicker the lights. Do the work and people will accept a little bit of advertising.
Also, when in doubt, hire Bill Murray to get your message across.
Top graphic image: Rivian
BMW did it for money, forcing it on owners, trying to sell them something
Rivian did it for fun, giving owners the option for some joy without pushing a direct product.
Dear car companies – be more like Rivian.
It’s the difference between monetizing a feature and building a brand.
You correctly point out that there is no movie coming out (that I am aware of anyway). That means that Rivian paid a pretty hefty fee to produce the ad with Bill Murray and spent considerable time designing and implementing the software changes without any obvious way to make that back. But people enjoyed it and probably told all their friends and you are talking about it (in a much more positive light than the BMW example).
So Rivian might be able to grow their brand and maybe their sales. I like that they made this optional but I still don’t like how much control they have over the car that I might buy. But if Rivian (or another manufacturer) builds a level of trust over years and shows they might not be dicks about the whole thing I might change my mind in the long run.
This looks like fun and they did a good job with it. I also like they’re making it a tradition that people can look forward to. They still need to give in to the whole Carplay and Android Auto thing though.
This definitely feels acceptable and like an actual “fun treat” instead of the beginning of a nightmare future.
Would the Spider-Man tie-in have been better if BMWs had some kind of elaborate “Spider-Mode” with more integration into the vehicle? Maybe? But I feel like there were other parts of that promotion that screamed “NOPE”.
I think the idea of that Spider-Man promotion was that it was very much something they could just “throw into your car” like a one-off integrated advertisement…
Oh god. I fear even writing this down because it might get scraped, but…enigami fi yeht detareneg eseht htiw ebiv gnidoc dna IA tra. Nope, nope, nope, nope!!
It helps that Ecto-1 exists as a calling card of the movie franchise. Spider Man is canonically a terrible driver and every attempt to give him a vehicle has been a marketing-driven exercise. Even the dune buggy Spider-Mobile was created to sell toys.
R2 Owner here, installed it, played with it, annoyed my neighbors with the sounds, laughed with it, my kid got to play with the game where you tap the little Stay-Pufts floating all over the screen, 10/10 execution for sure.
How are you liking the R2? I am debating about one as a replacement for my Polestar 2 in the future but as stated below kind of waiting for the R3 as don’t want something to big (unless it is replacing my FJ also)
Mini review of the R2 please! Pros and Cons. Hows no Carplay (or Android Auto)?
*inserts Benders neat* gif
Soo R3X when Rivian?