To start this text in an intriguing and captivating way let us first reflect on the following question: “How many exciting moments in your life have you had after seeing the following signal?”:

Of course, this asking is purely manipulative — there is no such thing as an exact number. The point of the inquiry is to evoke this sense of familiarity that only great brands could pull out from the user’s emotions. However, just a small fraction of them have managed to cross the barrier that stands between the formal consumption and the true, intimate experience. Because to be accepted in people’s lives one must first understand Life itself. And Life, as in any given case in the universe, is mostly about evolving. Well, few brands understand the evolution process better than HBO.

In The Beginning was the Wire

HBO was born in the early 1970s out of Charles Dolan’s idea of a specific television channel filled with unusual entertainment. Originally named “The Green Channel” the cable service was primarily envisioned as a way to insert a pay television — something unprecedented for that era — into ordinary people’s homes and lives. In one of the first meetings set to establish the new media, a few working titles were tossed around and one of them has stuck to the project intending to be replaced with a better one: Home Box Office. Apparently, the second meeting of that kind has never taken place.

Starting its first years with a rather inappropriate logo, the HBO’s trademark symbol saw a drastic renovation in 1975 when Betty Brugger (the then art director of Time-Life) redesigned the logo by using a very simple and really bold word-mark with the now-iconic three letters. The touch of brilliance that she did was to put a plain circle inside the ‘O’ to make it look like the power button on a regular TV set or remote control. Concerning the slogans, the situation was pretty similar — derivative and bland phrases needed to be replaced with something fresher and more memorable. That happened in 1983 when a 60-second clip consisted of intertwined images of family comfort and popular hit movies were aired to present the new motto: “There’s No Place Like HBO”. Аlthough this campaign might look cheesy from nowadays point of view the mood and ambience that this message set was just about as accurate as ever. It showed that a brand is already fully aware of its audience’s perspective and the way they experience their product — in a place where they feel safe and with people who make them happy.

Yet, the first golden moment in HBO’s branding didn’t come sooner than 1993 when it debuted a 5-second clip which was as simple as it was ingenious. The bumper itself ironically represented an old school TV set switched on (and off at its end) with the logo taking shape out of the static noise. Alongside with the proper sound design (a low phasing note plus the vintage hiss), this separating signal symbolises the special nature of the brand’s programs and their distinction over regular ones. And yet, it would take years for these irregular programs to emerge and take their place in the public’s minds.

While its focus in the 1990s was mainly on the comedy genre, HBO’s programming wasn’t any worthy or consistent competition to the biggest TV shows of this period. Feeling the lack of a one-hour drama with a severe tone and different, provocative content the media decided to dive deep, and in 1997 it produced Tom Fontana’ script for a series set entirely in prison. The gritty and unsettling atmosphere of Oz proved to not be an issue for an audience already captivated by similar documentaries. Taking advantage of the censorship-free nature of the service, HBO unleashed with this show an unprecedented amount of R-rated content all at once. This manoeuvre wasn’t just for a cheap shock sake but to demonstrate the importance of artistic control and freedom of expression even in a strictly commercial field like cable TV.