Oops. Guess who has had to change their tune about the value of the HBO brand. Yes, it’s Warner Bros. Discovery and Max. We all remember when Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it was cutting the “HBO” from “HBO Max” and leaving the streamer as just “Max.” In addition to that, Max tried to distance itself from the HBO brand overall as well, hoping to present a newer, more colorful, less niche vision of itself. But, well, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, we could have told anyone who asked that getting rid of the power and prestige of the HBO brand did not seem like a wise move. And, indeed, Warner Bros. Discovery has recently made efforts to reclaim the HBO energy it once rejected from Max. That includes branding things as “HBO shows,” as well as “Max shows.” And most recently, a rebrand for Max has brought its logo and color scheme more in line with the traditional HBO look.
Listen, we all make mistakes sometimes, it’s all about how you own them.
Ding dong, that Max blue is dead. And even though the words “HBO” aren’t back in the title of the streamer, everything else about the look and feel of Max’s latest rebrand screams HBO. Warner Bros. Discovery has traded the Max blue for the traditional HBO black and white monochrome.
We remember when Warner Bros. Discovery wanted the bright color to evoke the idea that Max had more than just “mature” content (unlike HBO), but had something for the whole family. We’d hate to be associated with a highly prestigious operation as well, especially one known for making quality content.
Max (newly free of “HBO”) began life with a purple aura. However, purple was later exchanged for blue, which CMO Patrizio Spagnoletto told AdWeek is “the most liked color, universally.” Sure. Spagnoletto added, “There’s different types of blue, and if you put us in juxtaposition to Disney or Paramount or Prime, they look different. With our blue and the way that the logo is designed, what we were going for is a combination of premium but accessible.” Spagnoletto concluded, “Consumers will tell us if we got it right, and we think we did. But there’s enough room in the world of blue to still differentiate ourselves.”
Well, this latest change to Max’s coloring tells us it really wasn’t about purple or blue, but, ultimately, about the HBO of it all. We’re sure Warner Bros. Discovery probably regrets wandering away from the quality pasture to the everything and the kitchen sink one. But hey, the return of black and white to Max’s branding makes us think they’re onto something… Maybe one day soon the streamer will even change its name to HBO Max once again.
Content shared from nerdist.com.