The character Mario has become one of the most recognisable symbols in global pop culture. He first appeared in a Nintendo game called “Donkey Kong” in 1981. Since then, Mario quickly evolved from a simple video game character into the centerpiece of a sprawling franchise. This corresponds to what Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer termed the culture industry.
- The term “culture industry’ was first introduced by Adorno and Horkheimer in “Dialectic of Enlightenment “to describe how popular culture, like films, radio programmes, and magazines, is produced similarly like a factory. The culture industry doesn’t emerge naturally from the masses. Instead, it is strategically designed to shape public consciousness through products that entertain and generate profit. They argued that this “factory” produces standardised cultural goods that manipulate mass society into a state of passivity and contentment, distracting people from real issues by offering easy pleasures. In Mario’s case, this commodification is seen through its vast franchise and its products, from the original Super Mario Bros. games to its expansion into films, merchandise, and more. Mario’s image is carefully crafted to appeal to a wide, global audience. To satisfy consumers with entertainment while neglecting deeper needs like freedom and creativity.
Nintendo has turned Mario into a cultural commodity, generating billions in revenue across multiple forms of media. Beyond the video games, Mario has expanded into a wide range of cultural products, from Super Nintendo World in Japan’s Universal Studios to the Super Mario movie, showing how the franchise has industrialised the character for various platforms. Mario has gone beyond its original platformer roots in gaming, branching into styles like Mario Party Superstars (a board-game style game) and spin-off games like Luigi’s Mansion, who is Mario’s brother. These similar cultural goods help keep the Mario brand profitable by consistently offering new but familiar content.
A key idea in the culture industry is homogenisation—the idea that cultural products become increasingly similar, offering the illusion of variety. In Mario’s world, whether you’re playing a traditional Mario platformer or something like Mario Kart, the experience often follows familiar patterns. Mario’s classic gameplay typically includes:
- Platform jumping.
- Collecting power-up items like mushrooms.
- Defeating villains to rescue characters.
Also, there’s always something hidden to discover, with secret areas and paths to explore. The design, characters, and gameplay are intentionally made consistent across the franchise to keep players comfortable and engaged. This makes consumers feel like they are making different choices, but they’re getting a similar experience each time. It’s like visiting a restaurant that changes the menu’s wording but serves almost the same dishes every time.
This constant stream of familiar Mario content shapes how we consume entertainment, making settling for predictable, escapist fun more accessible. It’s less about creativity and more about ensuring players stay hooked on what they already know and love.
Mario’s journey starts from a video game character to a multi-media empire illustrates how cultural products are shaped, controlled, and commercialised to generate profit while influencing consumer behaviour. Mario’s games, theme parks, movies, or merchandise, Mario represents how the culture industry standardises entertainment to keep audiences engaged while distracting them from deeper, more critical reflections on society. Mario’s success reflects how deeply the culture industry shapes our modern cultural experiences.
Reference
- Horkheimer, M. et al. (2020) Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
- Culture industry (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_industry (Accessed: 20 October 2024).
- Media Studies (2022) The Cultural Industries: Key Concepts, Media Studies. Available at: https://media-studies.com/cultural-industries/ (Accessed: 20 October 2024).
- Super mario (2024) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario (Accessed: 20 October 2024).
- How super mario became a global cultural icon (no date) The Economist. Available at: https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2016/12/24/how-super-mario-became-a-global-cultural-icon (Accessed: 20 October 2024).
I think your article perfectly reveals how Nintendo has transformed Mario from a simple video game character to a global cultural phenomenon at the heart of a multimedia empire. I agree the idea that whether it’s a traditional game or a derivative, the familiarity that Mario brings to the game feels new to players, but it’s actually repetitive. This kind of predictable entertainment, engaging players constantly and ignoring deeper thinking, is a good reflection of the way the cultural industry maintains profits and influences consumer behavior by standardizing products.
I agree that Mario is an icon to Nintendo. Mario has been around for a long time, from an indie game to a large franchise. I liked how you described the evolution of Mario by showing pictures and a video showing the history time line; also expressing how Nintendo has become successful by mass producing other forms of media such as films and board games.
You mentioned that Nintendo is generating billions in revenue, maybe you could add a specific number as billions could vary to a very large number, and show some statistics to back up your statement, e.g. showing evidence of sales of games perhaps. Alongside that, you could maybe examples by adding gifs where you talked about ‘Mario classic gameplay typically includes’ , as some people might have never played Mario or games in general, especially a much older generation like Gen X or Baby Boomers.
Overall, I liked how you explained the journey of Mario and how Nintendo became one of the biggest companies, and continued to find other profitable sources like creating movies and merchandise.
I Agree,with your article/blog that Mario is such an iconic video game character. And also the fact that he’s not simply on video games but a multi-media as he appeared in movies, his own theme park called Super Nintendo World, and in TV shows. He truly gives out the traditional feeling in the game that Mario is not just for children but for everyone, even for new players. Although Mario is a very popular video game character at last, there’s one character who surpasses Mario and has been booming this year, and that person is Sonic! Sonic The Hedgehog.
He gained an insane amount of popularity, such as his new upcoming movie, TV show, a recent new game that has just been released, and many collaborations, such as top-golf, as one of many. I think it is such a missed opportunity to talk about Mario. It is just a very topic to talk about as half of the population knows about Mario. Overall, it’s a hit and blog article, which I did enjoy, but there are other popular characters that could’ve been said in this blog.