For Pride 2025, HBO Max set out to celebrate the queer community that has long propelled its most iconic titles into cultural canon. Recognizing that quotes from prestige titles have become part of the global queer lexicon, used as meme material, viral audio, and identity shorthand – we looked to create a campaign that honored their impact. The objective: turn HBO Max’s most viral soundbites into a global Pride anthem.
The result: the “Gay HBO Max Song,” an original Pride anthem composed entirely of fan-favorite quotes from beloved series like The White Lotus, Succession, and Sex and the City. Rather than promote a single title, the goal was to celebrate the fandom itself – positioning HBO Max as a culturally fluent brand that listens to, celebrates, and amplifies queer voices. Partnering with drag icon and longtime fan Trixie Mattel, we transformed viral soundbites into a community-powered anthem designed to be streamed, remixed, and shared worldwide.
Pride is one of the most culturally saturated moments of the year, and audiences are quick to call out performative brand behavior so breaking through that noise while standing out as an authentic voice was our biggest challenge. To overcome that hurdle, we placed authentic talent at the heart of the campaign – not as a spokesperson, but as the creative storyteller.
Enter Trixie Mattel: drag superstar, musician, global entertainer, and longtime HBO Max fan. She wrote, produced, and performed the “Gay HBO Max Song” herself, ensuring the track was unmistakably hers: playful, campy, and unapologetically queer. With her deep ties to both the LGBTQ+ community and HBO Max, she ensured the track launched with the authenticity, cultural fluency, and trust needed to reach fans and break through the typical superficial allyship often seen during Pride. By giving Trixie full creative control, we exemplified a true partnership – one so aligned that many fans commented they thought Trixie had created the remix independently and pitched it to HBO Max – a testament to how authentic the collaboration was.
Rather than launch through traditional brand channels, we built the campaign entirely around the platforms, voices, and behaviors of our audience. From the teaser featuring Trixie Mattel and iconic HBO Max queens to the full music video drop, every moment was engineered to be socially shareable and spark joy amongst fans.
Tease the Moment:A cheeky “conference call” style social teaser video featuring Trixie and a few of HBO Max’s most viral queens kicked off the campaign rollout and primed fans for the track drop.
Launch the Anthem: A vibrant music video debuted on YouTube timed to Pride celebrations across Europe, NYC, and LATAM – a high-energy visual mashup of Trixie performing alongside a collage of iconic series clips to create a celebratory audiovisual remix of HBO Max’s most beloved moments.
Spread the Sound: Understanding how deeply fans engage with trending audio, we uploaded the track to native platform sound libraries which gave audiences the tools to create their own content with the viral track.
Go Global: To expand cultural footprint, we activated a curated collective of queer creators and DJs across key markets in LATAM and EMEA. Using the track as their creative foundation, creators produced a wide range of content – from GRWMs to regional remixes – reflecting the unique voices and subcultures of queer communities worldwide.
Overall, the strategy was simple but intentional: tap into the fandom, center queer creativity, and design every element to be shareable and reflective of the community that has made HBO Max a cultural force.
The “Gay HBO Max Song” instantly resonated with fans, who flooded social channels calling it the “song of the summer” and urging HBO Max to make the track available to stream. In response to overwhelming demand, we released the song across major music streaming platforms – extending the celebration far beyond Pride Month.
As news of the collaboration dropped, top-tier entertainment and culture outlets amplified coverage across their own social channels, driving organic momentum and reinforcing the campaign’s cultural relevance. Beyond the buzz, the sentiment told the real story: fans praised HBO Max for partnering with a queer creator like Trixie in a way that felt celebratory, intentional, and authentic – not performative.
The fusion of fan culture and musical storytelling turned the “Gay HBO Max Song” into a global celebration of queer joy, generating 26.3 million views, 925.69K social engagements, and a social reach of 13.95 million.
More than just numbers, the campaign strengthened HBO Max’s position as a culturally fluent brand that doesn’t just reflect queer culture – it actively champions and celebrates it.
