It was short and rather harmless, but when the HBO Max video streaming service accidentally sent an email to subscribers on June 17 with the subject line “Integration Test Email #1” (see below), Twitter was quick to reply.
We’re not exactly sure what an integration test is (we looked it up, but we still don’t really understand). The body of the email simply read: “This template is used by integration tests only.”
It’s unclear if HBO Max‘s “integration test” email was sent to thousands or millions of email addresses. However, the company’s @HBOMaxHelp Twitter account addressed the matter, saying that it was only sent to a “portion” of people:
We mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening. We apologize for the inconvenience, and as the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we’re helping them through it.
— HBOMaxHelp (@HBOMaxHelp) June 18, 2021
The mistake was ultimately uneventful, unless you count the fact that it sparked a lot of jokes online.
Humor Invades Twitter
Jokes began to pour on Twitter after the HBO Max “integration test” email was sent. For example, journalist Peter Sterne tweeted congratulations.
Congrats to HBO Max on the successful integration test
— Peter Sterne
(@petersterne) June 18, 2021
Another Twitter user posted an old Denzel Washington GIF for a clever laugh. The GIF is often tweeted when a celebrity is trending as a way to express relief that the person isn’t dead.
Saw Integration Test Email trending and thought he died pic.twitter.com/Bw1zILAbdo
— Jada
(@squiliamfancy) June 18, 2021
Twitter can often be a tense forum for political discussion, brigading, and uncivilized arguing, so it’s always nice when a lighthearted, nonpartisan moment trends for a brief moment in time.
How do we notify the HBO person their integration test passed?
— Mitchell Hashimoto (@mitchellh) June 18, 2021
Some users made fun of the idea of a HBO Max intern messing up and sending out the “integration test.”
HBO is like oh no our intern a goof lol don’t worry he’s dead now
— Kathleen O’Mara (@OMaraRules) June 18, 2021
But others empathized and decided to share mistakes they made early in their careers.
Intern Moments
For example, @Ali_Rehmatullah shared a mistake made when working for Wayfair. (Watch the top of the screen for a little block to scurry from right to left.)
Dear intern,
My first FT gig as a FE was @Wayfair where my first deploy to production code was to create a shimmering animation for the Sale menu item. But there was a naming collision for the keyframe animation that I wasn’t aware of…
Recreated it below.
It happens
pic.twitter.com/6L9hUJ8ae4
— Ali Rehmatullah (@Ali_Rehmatullah) June 18, 2021
Other Twitter users said they accidentally deleted company files, took an entire bank offline, emailed the word “poop,” invited an entire office to a meeting, and sent a message by mistake to millions of people.
After the HBO Max “integration test,” some also shared words of wisdom.
Dear Intern,
An engineering manager once told me, “Experience is what you gain from wins, wisdom is what you learn from losses.” Congratulations you just earned some wisdom!
Don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid of not growing. I’m proud of you.
A Platform Engineer
— Eddie Herbert (@edward_of_clt) June 18, 2021
More tweets can be viewed by searching Twitter for “HBO Max” or “integration test.”
Accidental Marketing Success
Twitter is often a hub where people gather to poke fun at seemingly minor incidents.
For example, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal Twitter account once tweeted the word “covfefe,” which led to quite a lot of discussion.
The good news for HBO Max is that the “integration test” ended up possibly getting more attention for a test email than they might ever receive for a standard marketing effort.
0 Comments