Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service, Max, will soon have a new name. Well, not a new name. An old name. That’s right folks, HBO Max is back just a few years after everyone on the planet said it was dumb to change the name to Max.
HBO Max first launched in 2020 and offered up a bunch of HBO shows and movies, alongside other WB-owned content like DC movies and Adult Swim shows. Then, in April 2023, WB Discovery CEO and dingus David Zaslav announced that it was dropping the HBO branding from the service and it would just be called Max. After the announcement, WB’s stock dropped by six percent and people mostly laughed at the new name and kept using the old one. Then, in February, WB rebranded Max’s logo from blue to black, seemingly signaling a return to the HBO branding. And now here we are. HBO Max is back after millions of wasted dollars.
On May 14, WB Discovery announced that it was bringing back the HBO Max name this summer because “consumers” now demand “better” content, not just “more” content. Fun fact: Back in 2023, after dropping HBO from the brand, the reason given was because they wanted people to not assume it was just premium adult content. Anyway, here’s some corpo blabble that will make you roll your eyes so hard they might fall out of your head.
“Returning the HBO brand into HBO Max will further drive the service forward and amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect from the offering. It is also a testament to WBD’s willingness to keep boldly iterating its strategy and approach—leaning heavily on consumer data and insights—to best position itself for success.”
Ahh, yes, what a bold strategy! Taking a name that was popular, recognized, liked, and successful, and tossing it into the bin because you completed a big merger and suddenly had new execs wanting to shake things up and be a part of the process. Then, after that new name flopped and everyone mostly igorned it anyway, you sneak back out to the garbage, clean up the old name, and bring it back with a big press release that touts how HBO is a brand connected to quality and prestige. Makes you wonder why you ditched it to begin with?
Now, let’s all think about how much money was spent on this stupid process and how the richest people in the world running these companies aren’t good at their jobs. Welcome back, HBO Max. You shouldn’t have been killed in the first place.
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