• by Ray Schultz , June 18, 2021

HBO Max found it was a social media laughingstock Thursday evening when an intern mistakenly sent out an email with the subject line "Integration Test Email #1," and copy that read, simply: "This template is used by integration tests only," according to reports.   

Later, the HBO Max help desk tweeted: "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. And we’re helping them through it." This was followed by a heart emoji.

Some observers wondered whether the gaffe was a mere marketing ploy, according to Today, which first covered it. But that wasn’t the worst of the commentary.  

One person tweeted: "Really…what bad taste blaming it on the 'intern' given how atrocious your customer service has been as of late."

At least they didn’t throw the intern entirely under the bus.  

Commenter Zach Tarvin tweeted: "Hire the intern. If they can weather that, they can weather anything."