Max, formerly HBO Max, is now HBO Max again. Warner Bros. Discovery announced the change today, rolling back one of the clumsiest rebrands in history from a streaming service that's had more than its share of clumsy ideas.
Right from the start, it seemed like everyone outside of Warner Bros. Discovery knew the change was a bad one. The first takes were brutal, like this take from Design Matters host Debbie Millman in a Fast Company story:
"I am completely bewildered by the HBO Max rebrand," says Debbie Millman, a designer, brand consultant, and host of the Design Matters podcast. "HBO took four decades of prestige and casually tossed it all into a dumpster, lit a match, and cheered as it burned."
Or this from Inc, a month after the rebrand in with a story about the Max app's bad redesign:
According to the company, the problem with HBO Max was the HBO part. There is an important lesson here, which is that your brand is not what you call your streaming service. Your brand is the way your customers feel about whatever you make. In this case, the feelings are pretty clear-this is a bad idea.
Digs at the rebrand are littered all over the place. Like an Engadget story headline …
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Gotta be in the top 3 dumbest rebrands ever.
Obviously, Twitter -> "X" will forever top that list, though.