Peacock trolled to the Max.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming platform HBO Max officially relaunched as Max — and streaming competitor Peacock took the opportunity to make an NSFW joke.
NBCUniversal’s streamer took a hilarious dig at HBO Max’s rebrand for dropping the first half of its name, letting everyone know that they will not be following suit.
“I know you’re all very disappointed, but I will *not* be dropping the first half of my name any time soon,” the official account tweeted.
Peacock got its name thanks to NBC’s iconic colorful logo that looks like the animal, though jokes have often been made around the “c- -k” part of the name.
The tweet was reposted to the streamer’s Instagram account, and those running the social media account enjoyed responding to people in the comments.
“Your social media person deserves a raise for this one,” one person suggested, to which the account responded, “brb sending this to my boss.”
Another told the brand to “live a little,” and the account replied that those were “my words to legal exactly.”
But Peacock wasn’t the only one to take a jab at Max.
Many fans took to social media to poke fun at the name change, as well as to complain about the changes and bugs they’ve had to deal with.
“Idgaf what WB says I’m still going to call it HBO MAX,” one person remarked.
Another added, “I still call it ‘ABC Family.’ I’m calling it ‘HBO Max’ forever,” referring to ABC Family’s 2016 rebrand to Freeform.
“I can’t call HBO Max just Max. Doesn’t feel right. Like calling Netflix just Flix,” someone else wrote.
The Onion jumped in on the roast with a parody article mocking the change, titled “HBO Max Changes Name to ‘The Sloppy Sleepytime Television Engine: All Aboard!’”
Even the Empire State Building got in on the joke, tweeting, “Inspired by HBO MAX rebranding to MAX, I’ll 1684953849 be known as BUILDING.”
A trend also started on Twitter where people placed the HBO Max logo next to a photo of a character or famous person named Max, joking that the character is what the streamer is turning into.
One person mocked the streamer’s new tagline, “The One To Watch for HBO.”
“I love how HBO Max changed its name to ‘max’ so now has to clarify that it’s the one to watch for HBO,” they tweeted.
Another questioned why they felt it was necessary to change the branding color on top of the name.
“I don’t mind the name change (HBO Max to Max); but do they really need to change their colors from purple to blue? Purple made them stand out from the other streaming services (If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it),” the user said.
Prime, Disney+ and Paramount+ all have blue logos, but someone pointed out, “At least Hulu and Netflix aren’t. But this is also another reason to hate the HBO Max rebrand to Max. HBO Max was purple before which was unique, but Max is just gonna be blue like nearly every other one.”
Some subscribers noted that they had issues simply getting into their accounts.
“Is anyone having issues with #HBOMax right now?! It’s not working on my Roku. The app kicks me out,” one person asked, with people in the replies reporting the same issue.
Another shared that they encounter an error message upon opening the app.
A Max spokesperson responded to the technical complaints in a statement to IGN, saying, “You must always anticipate issues on a tech rollout of this scale. We can share that only minor ones have emerged and were quickly remedied.”
According to Variety, Warner Bros. Discovery set up “war rooms” worldwide to monitor any issues that could occur.
“The entire team is on standby,” Avi Saxena, Warner Bros. Discovery’s chief technology officer, told the outlet.
Since Max is a relaunch of an already-existing streaming platform, some subscribers’ apps automatically updated — but others had to download an entirely new application on their devices, which users were not happy about.
“hahahahahaha jesus christ the HBOMax app doesn’t update to ‘max,’ you have to separately find and download the max app,” one person tweeted. “someday they will have a unit on this baffling decision in every marketing class in the united states.”
Others were upset at features that didn’t make the crossover into the new app, such as the option to upload a profile picture.
Variety reported that starting as soon as mid-June, new updates for Max will roll out every few weeks, taking customer feedback into consideration for features and fixes.
One user pointed out a major change in the credit information for content on Max.
“The new HBO Max (MAX) has eliminated writer/director credits in their interface in favor of a vague ‘Creators.’ This is what Raging Bull currently looks like. It’s so f- -king over,” they wrote, referencing the ongoing writers strike fighting for pay increases and other benefits.
It was announced back in April that HBO Max and Discovery+ would merge to create Max. Max officially launched on Tuesday, May 23.
Max has more than twice the content available as HBO Max did. On top of HBO’s signature shows, including “Succession,” “White Lotus” and “Barry,” hundreds of shows are being added from networks such as HGTV, Food Network, Discovery Channel, TLC, ID and Magnolia Network.
Other differences between the old and new platforms include a more stable performance, new video playback experience, faster and easier navigation, updated personalized recommendations, an additional premium option with 4K Ultra HD resolution, a default kids profile with parental control, more profile avatar options, new ad formats and more accessibility features.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
