In their latest advertising campaign, the International House of Pancakes has taken social media by storm. They announced that they would be changing their name to IHOb, and after letting the anticipation build, they revealed that the “b” stood for, not breakfast, as many were guessing, but… burgers?
Twitter was sent into mania, with brands and celebrities joining in the melee.
Twitter queen Chrissy Teigen offered her analysis:
IHOb is the guy who gets a face tattoo of the girl’s name after 1 date
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) June 11, 2018
Wendy’s threw some serious shade:
Not really afraid of the burgers from a place that decided pancakes were too hard.
— Wendy's (@Wendys) June 11, 2018
Burger King temporarily changed their name to Pancake King:
Burger King’s sarcastic name change to Pancake King has already generated $4 million in earned media, global CMO Fernando Machado says at #AdweekElevate pic.twitter.com/g9yfAkw1CN
— David Griner (@griner) June 14, 2018
Even Cookie Monster chimed in:
https://twitter.com/MeCookieMonster/status/1006279064603320320
IHOP has confessed that it was merely a publicity stunt, but one that they threw themselves into wholeheartedly. They wiped their Twitter account, and created a new one called @IHOb. The old @IHOP twitter account bio reads “Hey ya Pancakes. Don’t follow us here. We’re @IHOb now.”
The company even went so far as to change the signs on some of their restaurants in LA.
They weren’t playing. #ihop ➡️ #ihob pic.twitter.com/ZTySiRM7DH
— Drew Malino (@DREWMALINO) June 7, 2018
So the question is – will they actually be serving burgers on their menu? The answer is yes. The new offerings will include a “Big Brunch Burger,” a burger with bacon, a fried egg and hash browns, as well as less breakfast-y flavors such as Cowboy BBQ and Jalapeño Kick.
Many are skeptical about the menu expansion, and think the chain should stick to pancakes. But whether the burgers are a success or not, the marketing campaign definitely has generated a lot of attention on social media.