When you think of Christmas, red and green typically come to mind. But Hallmark’s latest holiday flick, Christmas on Duty, has a navy blue tinge as the festive, military-themed love story was made in partnership with . . . USAA?
To be expected from the rom-com factory, Hallmark wasted no time after Halloween to get the snowball rolling on Christmas. On November 1, Christmas on Duty premiered on Hallmark’s streaming service, Hallmark+, in somewhat of a collab between the TV network and the San Antonio-based military insurance and banking company. It follows Marines Blair and Josh, who haven’t spoken since graduating from “The Basic School” in Quantico when Blair snagged Josh’s dream job. After meeting unexpectedly three years later at the base Christmas party, the two cause a scene and are forced to work a 24-hour holiday shift as punishment. A snowstorm ensues, and the pair are pushed together to “save Christmas” and deliver presents to the base.
Here’s where USAA – whose sprawling Alamo City headquarters employs about 17,000 San Antonians – comes in. One scene in the movie was written by the company’s marketing team and “based on real life interactions we have with our members and the military community we serve,” a spokesperson told MySA via email. According to USAA vice president and Head of Brand Marketing Jen Escobar, a veteran and USAA member was cast in the scene, which depicts the company’s “real-life sponsorship of tree lighting events that take place at Quantico.”
A clip from the movie on Hallmark’s Facebook page shows a man in a USAA puffer jacket delivering the line, “Taking care of military families is what we do.” A few seconds later, the female lead is chatting with another character when she finishes his sentence: “I’m passionate about three things: my family, the Marines and USAA!” (With all this air time, one Reddit user in an r/HallmarkMovies Reddit thread said they were “surprised they didn’t sing the USAA jingle.” )
Now, holiday movies centering service members are nothing new (see also: Hallmark’s USS Christmas, Operation Christmas and, surprisingly, many others) but how does one like this come to be? According to the USAA spokesperson, not only was the script written by a Marine, but “research shows USAA prospective members consume Hallmark content 85% more than the general population, so the clear alignment led to USAA and Hallmark joining forces on a military-themed holiday movie.”
How to watch ‘Christmas on Duty’
It’s true that everyone likes to see themselves represented on-screen. So if you’re among San Antonio’s massive military-connected population, or you’re just a Hallmark fanatic and/or USAA member, you can stream Christmas on Duty on Hallmark+ or catch it live on the Hallmark Channel this Friday, November 7, at 5 p.m. CT.
This article originally published at USAA enters its Hollywood era with starring role in Hallmark holiday movie.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
