ihop restaurant sign

Mike Mozart/Flickr (CC-BY)

IHOb changes its name back to IHOP—to the surprise of no one

Please stop playing with our emotions like this IHOP.

 

David Britton

Internet Culture

Posted on Jul 11, 2018   Updated on May 21, 2021, 11:24 am CDT

IHOP, The International House of Pancakes, became IHOb, the International House of Burgers, for about a month. But it’s all over now.

“Everyone knows that IHOP makes world-famous pancakes so we felt like the best way to convince them that we are as serious about our new line of Ultimate Steakburgers as we are about our pancakes, was to change our name to IHOb,” Brad Haley, IHOP’s Chief Marketing Officer, said at the time.

But there was another part of the company’s official statement that most people missed.

“To show the brand is as serious about burgers as it is about its world-famous pancakes,” read part of the statement, “it’s flipped the ‘p’ to a ‘b’ in their iconic name for the time being…”

Yes, that’s right, “for the time being.” Everyone knew this couldn’t last. On July 9, the company flipped the “b” back around to a “p”, and attempted to make up for the ruse by offering 60-cent short stacks.

Well okay, everyone should have known this couldn’t last. Some people still seemed a tad upset with the ruse.

https://twitter.com/Kittypeake01/status/1016375773807239168

https://twitter.com/amberino91/status/1016661206147457025

https://twitter.com/_blurayy/status/1016742710731034625

By way of explanation, the restaurant seems to be leaning heavily into the phrase “burgers to bromote”.

https://twitter.com/pluralistberry/status/1017033483582038016

The lesson here is to not get emotionally wrapped up in any company’s propaganda, no matter how cute their marketing campaign may be. Corporations are fickle beast and libel to change anything at the drop of a hat.

It’s almost as if all they really care about is making money.

Speaking of which, you should probably get in on those 60¢ pancakes. That is honestly a pretty good deal.

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*First Published: Jul 11, 2018, 12:42 pm CDT