this post was submitted on 14 May 2025
479 points (98.4% liked)

memes

15322 readers
4787 users here now

Community rules

1. Be civilNo trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politicsThis is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world

3. No recent repostsCheck for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No botsNo bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/AdsNo advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.

A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment

Sister communities

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] simplejack@lemmy.world 103 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Don’t forget the brand color changes.

6 weeks ago they updated all their logos and signage to say max in grey instead of purple. Now they’re updating all the same collateral again to add “HBO” back.

That marketing and brand team has to be the biggest clown show of all time.

[–] jdeath@lemm.ee 52 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

it's the CEO. all of these changes are his calls. he decided to get rid of 'HBO', but obviously that was insane

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I know, you have a brand that is literally synonymous with movies for two entire generations of people.

Let's break it apart, let's change its name, let's spit it off as multiple products and then destroy half of them. Let's add a whole bunch of content and then remove it.

They're now synonymous with indecision, confusion, and whatever Hallmark movies they managed to have in their catalog these days.

[–] Cenzorrll@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

Quality movies and shows, HBO was the place for that for decades. If you saw HBO and static, you knew you were in for something good.

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Discovery has been a clown show for years now, and Warner must have been an even bigger one to get bought by Discovery.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 24 points 3 weeks ago

I work with people that are like this. They're fucking useless and they spend all of their time making busywork for others and trying to fail upwards.

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 56 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

We don't need max in there who asked for max. Just call it HBO. Everyone knows HBO. And bring back that static TV intro too. Dumb ass.

[–] figjam@midwest.social 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Because Cinemax but your point stands

[–] Roopappy@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't think I followed this... did HBO also own Cinemax? Is that why they called the service HBO Max?

[–] figjam@midwest.social 4 points 3 weeks ago

Hbo bought Cinemax and I assume that was why they added max but I can't say for sure.

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Cinemax was only softcore porn and action movies. We will be fine without having that in the name lol

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

They made The Knick which was cool, and sure it has the odd softcore porn scene here and there, but so does almost everything HBO has ever produced. It was their only drama production, but it wasn't without merit.

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I want the DUN DU DUN DU DUUU NU NU intro with the camera flying over the town and a giant HBO logo warping into low earth orbit.

That intro slapped.

https://youtu.be/i1NKoMNy5bY

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago
[–] remon@ani.social 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

And bring back that static TV intro too. Dumb ass.

It's still there?

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

The new stuff has that purple logo with like a bing bong sound

[–] remon@ani.social 4 points 3 weeks ago

When I watched Real Time and LWT last week, both had the usual static intro.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Coolbeanschilly@lemmy.ca 44 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Depending on the length of the timeline for all those name changes, it rather looks like the HBO execs suffer from schizophrenia.

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 31 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I had a front row seat to some of these shenanigans when I worked adjacent to some people directly involved in the Warner Media spinoff from AT&T. The level of executive incompetence would astound you. Even if you have worked for other big corps and think you've seen it all... this whole divestiture was an absolute clown show compared to what you usually see coming out of the C-Suite. And AT&T ate billions and billions in debt for this. lol

[–] Amanduh@lemm.ee 6 points 3 weeks ago

I already can imagine the number of meetings had over weeks and months agonizing every name change and referencing focus groups etc with a bunch of people talking about numbers etc, gross.

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Were the clowns mostly AT&T or Warner? Or pretty even between both?

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

There were plenty on both sides in that circus. I would say most of the blame is with AT&T though. When they bought Warner Media they replaced media execs with telco execs that knew jack shit about running a media business, and those execs ignored everyone telling them the right way to do things. Once you know about that, everything else makes a lot of sense.

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

I can believe that. I used to work in broadcast TV operations/engineering and remember a boss at the time lamenting about how the FCC board was composed entirely of telco people, so it was no surprise that they were taking all our spectrum and giving it to the telcos. I can only imagine if you put them directly in charge of the media company.

[–] OmegaMan 29 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

HBO Go and HBO Now were technically different products. Kinda dumb though. HBO Go was for people who had HBO service through their cable provider so they could stream HBO on demand at no extra charge. HBO Now was a subscription streaming service for people who didn't have HBO.

[–] AkatsukiLevi@lemmy.world 18 points 3 weeks ago

Blah blah blah I am gonna torrent the fuck outta them Millions must seed, I aint paying for that

[–] pjwestin@lemmy.world 28 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Calling it now, this is the Coke/New Coke/Coke Classic strategy. Coke was good, New Coke sucked, and when they went back to Coke Classic, people were so happy they didn't even notice that they swapped out the sugar for corn syrup. They were HBO Max, then they became Max, added in a bunch of reality TV slop, and dropped a bunch of their other content. I bet they'll announce they're bringing back half of the library they dropped for the 30 House Hunters spin-offs they added and hope people will count it as a win.

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Coke was good, New Coke sucked, and when they went back to Coke Classic, people were so happy they didn’t even notice that they swapped out the sugar for corn syrup

While I agree with the general statement of your comment, I do wish to be a bit "um actually 🤓☝️"

The new product continued to be marketed and sold as Coke (until 1990, when it was renamed Coke II) while the original formula was named Coca-Cola Classic, and for a short time it was referred to by the public as Old Coke. Some who tasted the reintroduced formula were not convinced that the first batches really were the same formula that had supposedly been retired that spring. This was true for a few regions, because Coca-Cola Classic differed from the original formula in that all bottlers who had not already done so were using high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) instead of cane sugar to sweeten the drink, though most had by this time.[11]: 183 

The putative switch was planned all along to cover the change from sugar-sweetened Coke to much less expensive high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a theory that was supposedly given credence by the apparently different taste of Coke Classic when it first hit the market (the U.S. sugar trade association took out a full-page ad lambasting Coke for using HFCS in all bottling of the old formula when it was reintroduced).[11] In fact, Coca-Cola began allowing bottlers to remove up to half of the product's cane sugar as early as 1980, five years before the introduction of New Coke. By the time the new formula was introduced, most bottlers in the U.S. had already sweetened Coca-Cola entirely with HFCS.[2]

New Coke was a major fuck up, but it wasn't a cover up for swapping to HFCS. Reagnomics/shifting safety laws enabled it being used, before New Coke happened.

[–] pjwestin@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Hey, "um, actually," is half my comments, so I can't talk. Also, thanks for the info. It was a conspiracy theory that I heard a couple of times but never bothered to look up.

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 25 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Can somebody explain the difference between HBO MAX and HBO MAX?

EDIT: As it was explained to me these are all the same service over time

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 18 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

In between they thought the HBO brand held some great prestige and wanted to protect it from stuff like live sports (that aren't boxing) and reality TV (that isn't Real Sex or Taxi Cab Diaries or Cathouse Some SHits) and so forth.

Then they realized nobody gave a shit AND it led to a lot of people wondering "what the hell is max?". So the HBO branding is back.

[–] Sixtyforce@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 weeks ago
[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

No I'm not asking the difference between HBO and MAX. I'm asking the difference between HBO MAX and HBO MAX. Please refer to the chart above.

[–] digger@lemmy.ca 14 points 3 weeks ago

HBO MAX was HBO's streaming service, albeit with some content from partners and subsidiaries. The difference is that HBO MAX is HBO's streaming service (with some content from partners and subsidiaries).

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 8 points 3 weeks ago

HBO Max became Max which became HBO Max.

Please refer to the chart above.

For David Zaslov, about $200 million.

[–] chainysawrs@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

HBO: “…”

HBO: “Go”

HBO: “NOW!”

HBO: “MAX!”

MAX: “…”

HBO: “MAX!!”

[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago
[–] Ronno@feddit.nl 9 points 3 weeks ago

Probably to get rid of all the lifetime 50% discount users…

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 weeks ago

Phef. I'm still salty from when they went max and threw up a TON of old Hannah Barbera and Tom and Jerry then pulled it back down before I could liberate it.

[–] tatann@lemm.ee 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The point ? Wasting even more money on marketing budget

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 4 points 3 weeks ago

What else are they going to spend it on? Content?

[–] And009@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 3 weeks ago

Could be testing and data driven decision. Usually done with sample group before publishing half a dozen times.

[–] Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Employment justification

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

Someone near the top got the idea that the brand matters more than consistency in message.

When people started calling Coca-Cola, "Coke", they didn't change the name to "Cola", and they didn't abandon Coca-Cola.

Just one more example of meritocracy being dead. Fools at the top pulling levers they don't understand just because they can.

[–] HurlingDurling@lemm.ee 3 points 3 weeks ago

Who cares, I never stopped calling it HBO, just like I still call X "Twitter".

[–] OwlPaste@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Does CEO have a kid called Max?

[–] Sunbutt23@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago