Once upon a time, in 2010, HBO launched a streaming service where people could watch all of their programming. It was called HBO Go, and it was good. In 2014, they renamed the service HBO Now, I guess because you could watch it...now. In 2020, feeling antsy, they renamed it to HBO Max, because their shows are maximully entertaining. Then HBO's parent company WarnerMedia merged with Discovery, which had its own streaming service called Discovery+. Those services got mashed together in 2022 under a new name: now the service was simply called Max.
Then, yesterday, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that they were changing the name back to HBO Max, part of an apparent strategy to drill down on quality over quantity. Does that mean that all the low-rent reality shows added to the service when it merged with Discovery+ will be taken away? I don't know. I'm not sure the higher-ups at Warner Bros. Discovery know, either. Does anything think executives who waffle this often know what's going on?
Looking at this from the outside, it all just seems embarrassing. Each time they change the name, they risk confusing customers. That's bad, because confused customers pay you less money, and corporations like money. I'm trying to put this as simply as I can because these people apparently don't have a great grasp of the basics: pick a name, stick to it, and then build it into a brand worth remembering.
You get the idea that WBD knows how dumb they look, because they're flooding the zone with lots of memes that poke fun at themselves for how dumb they look. They kicked things off with a clip of Jon Snow being brought back from the dead on Game of Thrones, just like HBO Max is being brought back from the dead and do you get it?
Or maybe they're reclaiming the name like Daenerys Targaryen reclaimed her birthright:
"Checking our mentions." Ha ha everyone is mocking us for looking like we don't know what we're doing ha ha.
And here's them sharing a clip of actors from their shows being confused back when they changed it from HBO Max to just Max:
"Why would you remove the biggest part of the branding?" asks House of the Dragon's Olivia Cooke. Good question, Olivia. GOOD QUESTION.
And here are Peacemaker showrunner and star James Gunn and John Cena learning in real time that the service is now going to be called HBO Max again:
"We're calling it HBO Max again?" asks a baffled James Gunn. "Wow." Just to clarify, we're calling it HBO Max for now. Who knows what name they choose next?
WBD was prepared for this. They drafted Noah Wyle, star of HBO's new hit medical drama The Pitt, to do a little sketch:
There's also a version with Tim Meadows, featuring dialogue from Dance Moms:
Here's the Penguin killing Max:
"Bitch, you better be joking." You see, WBD is laughing with us. They're in on the joke.
But I don't think it matters whether we're laughing with them or at them. I don't think it matters that WBD is trying to deflect criticisms for their bad decisions by posting cutesy memes. I'd really prefer they just stop making bad decisions. That is my wish for them.
Uh oh:
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