HBO Max's social team knows its rebrand is absurd. It's leaning in.

Max has returned to its original name, HBO Max, prompting jest among internet users. Instead of shying away from the jokes, Max's social media team embraced the situation through playful memes and references across various platforms, demonstrating a self-aware approach to branding missteps. The frequent name changes—from HBO Go to HBO Now, HBO Max, and back to HBO Max—have confused consumers, leading the company to adopt humor as a tool to mitigate criticism and engage with their audience positively.

Max's social team is going all out with the jokes because it probably knows that backpedaling to an earlier name is silly. It's much better to laugh with the internet than be laughed at.

This is something where they were like, 'We're just going to get totally excoriated, so at least we can be in on the joke a little bit,' said Jeremy Goldman, a senior director of client briefings at EMARKETER.

While WBD put out a relatively straight press release today about the rebrand, the company distributed a meme to go along with it.

For those not acquainted with the confusing name history of the Warner Bros. Discovery streaming service, Max has bounced around from 'HBO Go,' to 'HBO Now,' to 'HBO Max,' then 'Max,' and now back to 'HBO Max.'

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