It’s not April Fool’s Day, so why is international pancake chain IHOP acting like it is?
On Monday, the company announced on social media that they were changing their name to IHOb and asked their followers to guess what the “b” might stand for.
After hours of guessing, confusion and outrage at the name change of the iconic breakfast chain, IHOP ultimately released the truth. No, it doesn’t stand for “International House of Bitcoin” or “International House of Break Dancing,” as some people guessed it might. It doesn’t even stand for “International House of Breakfast.”
Temporarily rebranding as IHOb is a marketing technique thought up by the chain to introduce a new item onto the IHOP menu: burgers.
“Dear Internet, we abbreciate your batience. Now let’s see who guessed right. B-hold!!!!! #IHOb”
The company posted a video of the P in the logo flipping upside down to become a lowercase b. Knowing a good thing when they see one, IHOP continued with references to flipping things. The second part of the 15-second video features the cooks at IHOP trading in their pancake spatulas in order to flip some burgers.
Considering the fact that IHOP’s name change is only a temporary marketing ploy to showcase the new addition to their menu, only the company’s Twitter handle has changed to IHOb, as well as, randomly, the sign on the flagship location in Hollywood, California.
Of course, with such an absurd advertising campaign comes plenty of shady responses, mostly from other fast food and chain restaurant companies who think the campaign is just as ridiculous as the rest of us do.
Netflix, Qdoba and Timehop all pulled the letter-flip card and posted images on Twitter of their logos with the letters switched. Burger King and White Castle both joked about changing their names to Pancake King and Pancake Castle, and Whataburger clapped back with the bold claim that they’d never change their name to Whatapancake.
Whoever is in charge of the DiGiorno’s Twitter account is much funnier than I could have anticipated, because their shady response to IHOb is perfect. The famed pizza company recommends that the breakfast restaurant stick to what they know best:
You probably already knew that. pic.twitter.com/m0DXwUk9h8
— DiGiorno (@DiGiorno) June 11, 2018
Chili’s also didn’t come to play around with their response to the situation:
We don't usually throw shade, but seriously? That's what all that was about? Here's a real burger for you. #ChilisBoss #IHOb pic.twitter.com/eTVmtd9vir
— Chili's Grill & Bar (@Chilis) June 11, 2018
And, as the one of the reigning queen trolls of the Twitter-verse, Wendy’s response was equal parts hilarious and shady.
In response to a tweet asking, “so @Wendys u just gonna let @IHOb sell burgers on your block? thought you were the og?” Wendy’s clapped back with a devastating blow to IHOP/IHOb.
Not really afraid of the burgers from a place that decided pancakes were too hard.
— Wendy’s (@Wendys) June 11, 2018
Both celebrity and normal Twitter accounts began to get in on the roasting action, as well.
Chrissy Teigen joined the group with her brutal call-out of IHOP: “IHOb is the guy who gets a face tattoo of the girl’s name after one date.”
And, my personal favorite of the IHOb responses, this unassuming yet hilarious tweet from Twitter user @woodscommahelen that stirs up high school nostalgia while also poking fun at the chain:
International
House
Of
Big group of theater kids coming in at 10:30 pm in their stage makeup after their Friday night production of Fiddler on the Roof— captain acab (@woodscommahelen) June 11, 2018
