We’ve all been in situations that feel worthy of a movie—but what happens if someone else takes that experience and turns it into a movie without your consent? That’s what one content creator says happened to her in a viral TikTok with over 223,000 views.
Michelle, otherwise known as The Farm Babe (@thefarmbabe), went viral last year after she and 12 strangers took a road trip from Orlando to Knoxville after finding out their flight was canceled. The original video, which a group member named Alanah (@alanahstory21) posted to TikTok, has received 4.3 million views. With all the media attention garnered, publicity was expected for the viral moment—but did Hallmark take it too far?
Here’s what happened, in Michelle’s words.
“I am legit really mad at Hallmark right now,” she explained. Her travels with her newfound friends went so viral that they were “contacted by a literary agent, Tyler Perry’s producers, and Netflix to do a documentary. All of these cool things happening,” she explained. “But then Hallmark swooped in and completely stole everything we did. They stole our entire storyline, all the way down to the trailer.”
She continued, “If you watch our original videos that we did on alanahstory’s TikTok, when you watch the original video, you see me saying, ‘I’m just here for the snacks’. And in the trailer, this guy’s like, ‘Oh, I’m here for the snacks. They literally ripped off our story, didn’t give us any credit, didn’t get our permission, didn’t do anything to involve us. They’re literally exploiting our story.”
“God only knows what kind of money they’re making off of it—on our story, without even crediting us. Hallmark, what you did was shady.”
She added in the TikTok’s caption that the movie in question is “Holiday Road,” which, according to Hallmark’s website, sees “Nine strangers, stranded at an airport during the holidays, unite for a Christmas road trip to Denver.” The film is set to premiere on the Hallmark Channel on Sunday at 11 p.m. CT or 12 a.m. ET.
Michelle and Hallmark didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s requests for comment via contact form.
