BOOK REVIEW

REVIEWED BY COURTNEY BRANNON DONOGHUE

Branc Hollywood: Selling Entertainment in a Global Media Age

by Paul Grainge

s illustrated by the continuous cycle

of summer prequels, three-quels, and
new franchises, a key strategy for the
Hollywood conglomerates has been to
(re)invent recognizable brands such as Dark Knight, Iron
Man, and Sex and the City. Big event pictures can mean big
business and big audiences for tbe studios, breaking box
office records by landing among the top annual grossing
films domestically. In order to guarantee profits and an
adaptable brand the films are constructed as huge media
events situated within a universe of marketing, ancillary
markets. and multilayered distribution deals.
In Brand Hollywood Paul Grainge examines how industrial changes and branding practices have shaped these
event films within the context of a globalized film industry.
Situating his work alongside Charles Acland, Grainge explores how the new gestalt oP'total entertainment" affects
the status and selling of films. He focuses on the period
between' 1995 and 2003, when "branding became an organizing, principle . . . within the (new) media economy
of Hollywood" (14). For example, as
the structure of Time Warner changed
through various mergers, the company's
strategy for producing, marketing, and
releasing fdms centered on creating and
maintaining valuable brands,fromBatman
to Harry, Potter.
The study focuses on the complexities of cultural production (production
history, marketing, distribution, and exhibition) rather than use and reception.
Grainge ofers a wide approach that includes industrial history and practices that
follow thi; wave of mergers in the 1990s
as well as discourse and textual analysis
of the event pictures and franchises that

The Velvet LightTrap, Number 63, Spring 2009

followed. The author examines how "branding has come

to 'make sense' to corporate actors to the status and selling
of film" in what he calls the "global media age" (14).
Grainge structures his work in three parts, outlining the
practice, poetics, and politics of branding, respectively. Part
1 explores branding as discourse, specifically the changes in
the marketing and media environment toward "the concept of'total marketing' and 'total entertainment' w^ithin
and between consumer and cultural industries" (15). In
chapter 1 Grainge identifies how trade discussions regarding brands have come to distinguish the "core values" of a
product or service in order to elicit new levels of consumer
engagement (26). Referencing Jean Baudrlard's discussion ofthe meaning of goods in relation to value of commodity signs and Anne Cronin's concept of "consumer
citizenship," chapter 1 discusses how "the specificity of
branding in the 90s can be measured in relation to various
forms of institutional discourse, co-linking ideas of consumer behavior, corporate equity and intellectual property
in ways that have come to yield a particular effectivity
within cultural and economic practice''
(31).The author utilizes two case studies
(BMW film series and Chanel No. 5:The
Film) in order to examine the strategy
of product placement as a branding
tool and as part of a new reflexive style
in the production and consumption
of promotional signs (35-36). In the
following chapter Grainge begins by
discussing how one of the most famous
entertainment complexes, Disney, has
become a leader in"total entertainment"
and in the development of branding
within a system of vertically integrated
media conglomerates.The remainder of
the chapter explores how Time Warner

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76
altered business strategies to compete in this transforming
global media market. Grainge explores Warner Bros. (Time
Warner's major film subsidiary) and The Matrix series as an
"illustration of the brand regimes of total entertainment at
the close of the nineties" (61).Through exploiting politics
of style, taste, and youth subculture and spinning off subsequent sequels, animation series, and games.Warner Bros,
creates a spectacular experience that is simultaneously "a
corporate property revealing anxieties, as well as ambitions,
of Hollywood in continuing to remodel the motion picture
as a multipurpose object" (66).
Part 2 follows the poetics of branding by exploring corporate logos as institutional signatures and how these reveal
the negotiations between studio identity and trademark
power (71). Situated in the postclassical era, chapter 3 considers Warner Bros.' changing construction of studio branding and logos. Grainge offers an analysis of the iconic WB
studio logo in order to illustrate how the company utilizes
"images of historical grandeur to establish and legitimize its
particularity as a manufacturer of entertainment products"
(73). In the conglomerate era Warner Bros, and Paramount
quickly realized the value in studio era institutional history
by refashioning their corporate images through the logos
and the films themselves. Utilizing"the aesthetic/affective
combination of studio memory and blockbuster hype" (85),
each studio attempted to capitahze on its legacy in order
to cope with uncertainty regarding its status in a changing
consolidated media market (87). Chapter 4 concentrates on
the marketing and discursive history of Dolby technology
as a technical brand since the 1980s and how the company
"became an instructive logo for the film industry and its
audiences" (90). Situating his discussion in relation to what
Rick Altman calls cinema's "event-oriented aesthetic," the
author approaches a number of famous Dolby marketing
trailers from three areas: (1) the capital and ability of sound
technology to create added value since the 1970s; (2) the
function and presence of Dolby as a Ucensing trademark;
and (3) the battles over digital sound trademarks between
Dolby and DTS in the 1990s within various exhibition
spaces. Similar to discussions of film and studio branding
in previous chapters, part 2 explores how studios have used
logos to manage and maintain their hegemony and the
way "sound branding relies on linking products, services,
and technologies to 'sensual and memorable' experiences"
associated with "total entertainment" (105).
The final chapters explore the strategy of Time
Warner's key film vehicles and the politics of branding

Book Review

through animation, fantasy, and themed spaces (111). In

chapter 5 the author situates the Looney Tunes brand,
specifically the films Space Jam (1996) and Looney Tunes:
Back in Action (2003), discursively within two particular
moments of restructuring within Time Warner "to mediate the commodity logic of total entertainment" (112).
The first film was released during,the Time Warner and
Turner Broadcasting merger of the mid-1990s. By playing with self-awareness and the dynamics of branding,
Grainge argues that Space Jam's project was "to signify,
contextualize, and aestheticize consumption practices
growing out of the industrial and fan intersections of
sports and entertainment" (121). If Space Jam became "a
form of brand hyperbole, celebrating the very principle
of synergy" (114), then Back in Action "played upon
Hollywood studio culture and the navigation of movie
and cartoon history" (123).The latter film also speaks to
the rise and fall of the studio store and the emergence of
the digital technologies (118).
Chapter 6 looks at the "event-in-itself of blockbuster
marketing" (129) against the context of the tumultuous
AOL merger that led to a period ofa renewed corporate
focus on film entertainment divisions (129).Whe Looney
Tunes made visible the strategies toward branding, Grainge
contends that the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter fantasy
franchises attempt to mask conglomerate holdings.While
New Line'sflexibleindependence as a subsidiary allowed
it to develop LOTR into a megabudget franchise that
defrayed risk through international coproduction partnerships, Warner Bros, introduced the Harry Potter series as a
tightly managed brand through strict marketing, competitive release dates, and discursive competition. In turn,
a product rivalry emerged between the two brands that
helped sustain the hegemony ofWarner Bros, as a global
media conglomerate into the 2000s.
In the final chapter the author references Acland's work
to consider "the spatial formulation of branding within
structures of the global and the everyday," particularly in
regards to film exhibition (152). In order to understand
how Hollywood has recently attempted to develop and
modernize its exhibition globally, Grainge utilizes a promotional and discursive analysis ofWarner Village in two
British commercial spaces, Gunwharf Quay in Portsmouth
and Cornerhouse in Nottingham. In examining the marketing and local discourses around the development of
these urban entertainment complexes (UEC),the two case
studies "demonstrate how the global expansion of theatrical

Courtney irar\r)or) Dor)Oghue

venues is linked to customization of entertainment space

for regional city identity" (155).
In his attempt to examine the Hollywood conglomerates' "will-to-brand" against contemporary corporate
restructuring, Grainge contributes methodologically to
the area of global or transnational film industry within
media studies. By aptly integrating industrial histories,
marketing, discourse, and textual analyses, Grainge offers
an excellent model for contemporary analysis ofthe global
media cliinate. Analyzing modes of production, distribution, marketing, and exhibition for various fdms and media
conglomerates, the author's work serves as a contribution
that successfully bridges conflicts within cultural studies
regarding the broad nature of political economy and the
specificity ofthe text.
Although acknowledging theories of resistance and
criticisms of the current state of film entertainment, the

77
book offers an insightful way to discuss Hollywood's
presence and power relations without stopping at earlier
debates surrounding cultural imperialism and cinema.
A lingering question is whether the specific business
practices of Warner Bros, and its subsidiaries translate to
other major conglomerates in Hollywood with their own
specific industrial histories and practices. Overall, Grainge
presents an ambitious industrial study and a new perspective regarding issues of globalization, political economy,
and Hollywood marketing strategies for fikn studies. Brand
Hollywood should be required reading for any undergraduate or graduate course that explores contemporary dynamics ofthe global film industry.
Paul Grainge. Brand Hollywood: Selling Entertainment in a

Global Media Age. New York: Routledge, 2007. 212 pp.

$34.95 (paper).