International. House. Of. Pancakes. We have all eaten there. We have found ourselves enjoying a short stack on “Free Pancake Day.” We have even chosen to never question just international the house of pancakes really is. The famous dining establishment mentioned last week that they will be changing their name from IHOP to IHOB, but left us all to wonder what the “B” would stand for. The easy assumption was that “Breakfast” would replace “Pancakes” in the name, seeing as the restaurant offers an expansive breakfast menu. Well you know what they say, when you ASSUME you make a flap-jackass out U and Me. IHOP really scrambled our eggs today by announcing what their new name stands for: International House Of Burgers.
Dear Internet, we abbreciate your batience. Now let’s see who guessed right. B-hold!!!!! #IHOb pic.twitter.com/Fh3SkZ7s3Y
— IHOb (@IHOb) June 11, 2018
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Sure the restaurant chain has always offered lunch/dinner options but the pancakes were the real draw! They’ve never even tried selling a burger stuffed between two pancakes…although that’s an idea I should trademark! In any event, the announcement has left the internet confused, concerned and some might say hungry.
Waffle House would never eff with you the way IHOP/B has
— Sam Sanders (@samsanders) June 11, 2018
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This IHOP/IHOB thing is pretty brilliant… how many companies can get the entire internet talking about them based on a marketing campaign where they pretend to change their name? And how many people knew before today that they even served burgers?
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) June 11, 2018
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IHOP: We’re changing it to IHOB
Everyone: International House Of Breakfast isn’t bad
IHOB: BURGERS!!!! pic.twitter.com/iosPzknY6K
— IGZ (@igzrap) June 11, 2018
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Well the good news in all of this is that the restaurant change is not in fact changing their name. The publicity stunt is being used to garner attention round the fact their new menu will feature $6.99 burgers with unlimited fries and drinks. IHOP Chief Marketing Officer, Brad Haley told a group at a burger tasting event last week:
“People know us for pancakes. The goal is to get people to think about us for lunch and dinner. We have a lot of white space after breakfast.”
This news broke just moments ago, but as far as attention getting headlines, I’d say Haley deserves a raise. We haven’t seen this much excitement around breakfast since those kids made that club back in the 80’s. Anyway, rest assured your favorite pancake house shall remain unchanged. Thanks for the international scare, IHOP!