I don’t understand ditching a long-established brand.  Especially in 2023.  I remember the introduction of “New Coke” back in the 80s.  Bill Cosby assured us all that it was better than the old Coke.  Maybe Bill is available to help with this re-brand too?

Ken Misch

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HBO contributes just about everything worthwhile in programming to what can be found within HBO Max/Max.

Absolutely brain dead move.

That’s the equivalent of renaming Disneyland “Tune Town”.

Jaime Feldman

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Talk of Zas dropping the HBO in HBO was around for months and optimistically I chose to believe no one could possibly be this out of touch.

OK he’s got all these ‘reasons,’ but none of them have anything to do with the basics of brands, pop culture, consumer awareness and behaviors.

Don’t know if this will go *all the way down in flames, but it’s a lock for the next megalomania textbook. Like Musk not understanding even the basics of social media.

Deb Wilker

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Zaslov will go down as one of the most short-sighted, anti-creative, destructive bean counters in history.

Just google what he’s done to the animation industry, to an entire generation of creatives. Cancelling shows, shuttering studios, wiping out the careers of thousands. Because… Discovery Channel??

This week there is news of Warner Brothers literally throwing out press kits and posters dating back to the 1950s as another cost-cutting move.
A cost cutting move caused by the pointless financial shenanigans of Zaslav, who apparently makes more than 40 million a year.

As you point out, it’s truly pathetic.

In the age of streaming this blinkered greedy moron is burying and cancelling content.
Max will fail. He will fail. But the damage is being done to real people and real culture.
ugh

Xeth

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I was heavily involved in the development of HBO advertising in the mid 90s at BBDO advertising. The agency’s job was to develop tune-in advertising for select HBO programming, just when the network was pivoting from theatrical movie releases to original programming. The decision to heavily invest in original programming was a strong and bold move by HBO management, somewhat similar to Reed Hastings jettisoning DVD’s for streaming w/ Netflix.  HBO’s unique, original and high-quality programming immediately created a point-of-difference vs. programming offered by other networks; which led to the “It’s Not TV, It’s HBO” tagline. Back then, the network was run by programmers (not bean counters), who also understood the importance of both branding and marketing. Now admittedly, the television landscape has shifted dramatically in the past 10+ years with much more competition.  There now are many, many players. That said, I knew the brand was in deep trouble the minute AT&T took ownership of HBO in 2019. Very few brands have the equity and iconic imagery of HBO that was built and nurtured over several decades. Bob, this branding debacle isn’t as bad as New Coke, it’s far, far worse. It’s inexplicably Harvard case study worse.

Stuart K. Marvin

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Talk about living in the past. Crazy that “HBOMax” goes with “Max”, a brand whose legacy nods to Cinemax (Skinemax) and HBO’s common corporate parentage. I have had for years the highest regard for the quality of HBO programming like Succession, Sopranos, True Detective, Game of thrones, The Wire, Perry Mason, John Oliver, Real Time, etc. “Max” is a silly, puzzling and backward move at a Min(imum). And how is it they have ceded the comedy market HBO once owned to Netflix. Comedy specials (Pryor, Robin Williams, etc) and movies established their elite brand early on. Color me baffled.

Jim McKeon

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Typical idiocy anyone could see coming a mile away that will result in a devalued brand and golden parachutes for the architects of the stupidity.

Dave Conklin

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The name and logo remind me of the old skinemax (Cinemax)

Maury Wilks

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I thought the exact same thing when I saw this. I mean who’s brilliant idea was it to go from HBOMax and leave just “max” when Cinemax already failed and HBO was the only thing going for this “venture”?! The optics are horrible. Talk about complete self own.

L.A. Gonzalez

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I’ll bet people will think MAX is a new version of Cinemax. If it ain’t broke……

Russ Turk

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Agree on all points – And also, hasn’t MAX always been shorthand for Cinemax?

Ball of confusion.

Brian Howell

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Max / CineMax was HBO’s 2nd tier product. Seems so silly to rebrand to something related to your 2nd tier product.

Rusty Hodge

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Totally agree first thing I thought when announced. MAX has a soft porn rep to us gen xers but HBO had the cache’…oh well.

Luke Joerger

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Truth. I didn’t subscribe to Max. I subscribed to HBO.

Steve Schalchlin

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I think it’s safe to say that every single person who subscribes to Discovery+ does so in order to watch reality tv. Don’t underestimate the power of Bravo’s various franchises.

I’m only slightly ashamed to admit that I subscribe to Paramount+ for no other reason than to watch Survivor and The Challenge.

Zac Lasher

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Max is a plane with an unfavourable legacy.  HBO is the service that brought us the Sopranos. What are they thinking?

Andrew Forsyth

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Bob: Took your recommendation to check out Love Life on HBO Max.  Show has been pulled, effective last February.  Bob Paris

“William Jackson Harper Says He Was ‘Big Mad’ After ‘Love Life’ Was Pulled From HBO Max. The anthology series, which starred Harper in its second season, was recently canceled and removed from the streaming service as part of cost-cutting measures.”

https://bit.ly/3GEfTap

No Love Life on HBO MAX, gone to pay on Amazon and others.

Paul Zullo

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it’s worse than calling ’NEW COKE’ just NEW.
why are people so dumb sometimes???

Rob Preuss

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Bob, nailed it.

Mike Vial

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Hear hear.  Insanity.

Nick Davis

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Agree Bob. Completely.

The most important thing Zaslav could do is find some outsiders and listen to them. Unfortunately, ego and isolation are the enemy of success during periods of the kind change that is disrupting his world.

John Parikhal

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I don’t care what they call it. Just give the app some much needed tech support. Not being able to play downloaded content on a device in airplane mode is pointless.

Keith Farszmil

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As a very fine actor said in a great film:  “stupid is as stupid does. “   This is marketing 101. Amazing.

Martin Tudor

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I’m changing my name to Murray.

Steven Ross