Do you feel that society is secretly conditioned/primed to like certain things?

Yes, look for instance at the enormous fortune generated by the Peanuts comic strip, whose characters have been conceived to have almost universal appeal. The actors Clint Eastwood and Audrey Hepburn appeal almost universally to men and women respectively. Any archetype is likely to have wide appeal, similarly to the fact that facial symmetry, good health and fertility define sex appeal. A TV show such as Friends was almost guaranteed to succeed.