Communication in Popular Culture

                         The culture industry as it relates to the Hallmark Channel programming

Ahh, the legendary Hallmark movie. For some, my girlfriend's family included, these movies have become an integrated part of the winter season, especially in the three months around the holidays. We even got her dad a pair of the famous socks. Here's a picture of them if you haven't had the fortune of seeing them yet. 

The production of cookie-cutter feel-good holiday-themed movies is the Hallmark Channel's bread and butter. According to an article in Forbes, the channel produces approximately 40 holiday movies a year. That's over three dozen full-length movies to be shown in a relatively short period of time. 

How is this possible for any movie studio, much less a television channel? It comes down to a formulaic approach. The author of the Forbes article describes the average plot of the Hallmark holiday movie in perfect fashion, also alluding to why viewers are drawn to them. 

"Hallmark movies’ familiar structure and predictable outcomes are a strength at this time," the author writes. "While you can’t control what’s happening around you, you can predict that the heroine will wind up with the hero at the end (and not with another heroine, at least not yet; for now, you have to go to Netflix and Hulu for same-sex pairings)."

And according to the article, the formula is working. Since 2009, Hallmark has quadrupled their movie production numbers. 

The article cites Nielsen in saying more than 80 million people watch at least a few minutes of a Hallmark movie during the Christmas season, going on to say that the channel ranks as the No. 1 network among the advertiser-friendly demographics of women 18-49 and women 25-54 for most weeks in November and December.

reproduction, and therefore always remains external to its object

the technique of

"The technique of the culture industry is, from the beginning, one of distribution and mechanical reproduction, and therefore always remains external to its object," Guins and Cruz write in Popular Culture. I see the production of Hallmark holiday movies as a shining example of how the culture industry has created a tried-and-true formula that can be replicated on an extremely large scale. Furthermore, the economics of the Hallmark formula have one extra element of success: the predictability that is engineered into each movie product is not only expected by consumers, but enjoyed. 

What examples of formulaic production have you noticed in pop culture that has achieved success similar to the Hallmark movies? And do you like them? Full disclosure, I cannot stand them. 

Cheers, and have a great weekend!

-Karl 

the culture industry is, from the beginning, one of distribution and mechanicareproduction, and therefore always remains external to its object