HBO turned public humiliation into a marketing strategy?
📰 NoGood News | Vol. 94
Hi NoGoodies 👋
Welcome to NoGood news where we talk about all things marketing — the good and not so good.
We just watched Duolingo crash out in real time. The iconic Duo mascot disappeared on Instagram and TikTok without a trace in response to the AI-first backlash. Was that a smart move for their brand?
HBO Max rebranded - again - proving that their identity crisis never really ended.
And the biggest shift yet: Google has officially entered the AI game and search as we know it will never be the same. The era of blue links is fading — fast.
Enough for the TL;DR, let's jump into it.
HBO Max rebranded… again
Read about how HBO turned their disaster of a rebrand into a social media campaign
Google enters their AI era
Duolingo wipes their socials amidst the AI-first backlash
Ready? Let's get into it.
🔄 HBO Max rebranded… again
Read about how HBO turned their rebrand into a social media campaign
HBO rebranded AGAIN and even their own internal team is sick of it.
Except this time, they’re in on the joke.
Instead of pretending the identity crisis never happened, their social team launched a full social media campaign, turning internet criticism into content.
They posted videos, tweets, and memes about their (re)rebrand, tapping into the chaos within hours of their public announcement.
You can’t get rid of historical backlash, but you can change the narrative.
HBO Max earned the title of being the most rebranded streaming platform to exist.
By embracing the negative press, HBO Max turned their rebrand into a brand awareness boost.
This is something we don’t see brands do often.
Brands that are self-aware and are active listeners can turn negative press into a positive content strategy.
What are your thoughts on the return of HBO Max?
🤖 Google enters their AI era
Learn how to optimize for Google AI search
Google’s shift to AI Overviews and Deep Search fundamentally changes how your content is discovered and cited. Instead of returning a list of links, Google is now using Gemini to interpret intent, break queries into subtasks, scan hundreds of sources, and synthesize a cohesive answer.
This changes your job from “get ranked” to “get cited.”
How to optimize your content
Write for real human intent: Don’t just target keywords. Reverse-engineer full user prompts and sub-questions using forums.
Structure for skimming AND synthesis: Use subheadings, bullet points, summaries, and data boxes to make it easy for Google to extract meaningful text chunks.
Go deeper than summary-level advice: Offer frameworks, decision matrices, pricing breakdowns, firsthand experiences, expert quotes, or user-generated insights.
Answer the follow-up question: If a user asks, “Is creatine good for runners?”, include the science behind it, usage tips, side effects, alternatives, and expert opinion.
Create data-backed, expert-level content: AI Overviews are more likely to link to content with citations, named authors, data sources, and external references.
📱 Duolingo wipes their socials amidst the AI-first backlash
Take a peek behind Duolingo’s new strategy
Are we witnessing the downfall of Duolingo live?
Duolingo completely wiped their TikTok and Instagram account over the weekend.
While many people are speculating that their AI backlash is the cause of all this, there may be another underlying reason.
So is this really the downfall of Duolingo?
Most likely not.
This behavior is only happening on TikTok and Instagram with bios that read "real eyes realize real lies” and “gonefornow123.”
Duolingo is speaking in code and everything they post is for a reason.
Their LinkedIn and X are still active so signs point to another strategic marketing stunt in the making.
They never acknowledged the AI backlash in real time but this sudden disappearance just might be their response to that.
Duolingo lost 10 million followers ever since they announced going AI first so they're doing what they do best in hopes to maybe save the brand.
Do you think this marketing campaign will save Duolingo?
🎙️ Q&A with an expert
A bi-weekly interview series with the best in the game
Q: What do you think Duolingo's objective was behind wiping clean their TikTok and Instagram accounts?
A: Classic distraction tactic. Duolingo has built a reputation for leading the charge (for better or worse) on how brands can communicate with their audience on social media. What's remarkable about this move, to me, is that there is nothing particularly new or novel about it. We see artists scrub their profiles when it's time to move into a new 'era' or promotional cycle all the time. I see the intention in playing up the celebrity angle here, but mixed with the embarrassing conspiracy theory rebrand, it felt exhausting and a little desperate. We all knew they would be back to regular posting within a week.
Q: How does this stunt reflect where brand culture is headed as more companies come out as AI-first?
A: I do think the reception here was much more negative than the company was expecting. Duolingo is far from the only, or even the biggest, organization to consider such policies. However, this is where the cult of personality they've built on channels like TikTok becomes a double-edged sword. Duolingo is seen as a company that's in lockstep with how its younger audience communicates and responds to trends in the digital world. There's a big portion of Gen Z and people on social media who feel afraid of the way AI technology is advancing so rapidly, but hold the app in high esteem and have strong feelings of attachment to it. That being said, there's a lot of disinformation at play too. If you look at the comments on their recent posts, people are boycotting the company, deleting the app and claiming that Duolingo laid off their entire staff. This response speaks to the culture of uncertainty that persists around GenAI and makes it clear that most big, traditional brands still need to do a lot of work in figuring out how to communicate these changes to their core audience.
✍️ We wish we wrote this
Articles that caught our eye these past 2 weeks:
Are people favoring Reddit results more than AI overviews?
On wants to be the most premium brand in sports and it’s working
Google Search as we know it is about to change
👀 Keeping up on the socials
Because IYKYK is better than FOMO:
Propaganda we’re not falling for as a marketing agency
If Tom Cruise had a marketing manager
Google rebranded with one small logo change
Do you remember Kik?
🔥 Trend Radar: Blow up or fall behind
The trending topics, sounds, and formats to key and eye on:
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