The International House of Pancakes caused more national strife and tension than the announcement of a nominee to the Supreme Court by a Republican president when they suddenly changed their name to International House of Burgers.
The internet flipped and rival food chains began throwing Twitter shade.
Not really afraid of the burgers from a place that decided pancakes were too hard.
— Wendy's (@Wendys) June 11, 2018
Many people were not convinced that the place famous for breakfast would just dump their brand like that overnight. As it turns out, they didn’t.
Business Insider reports that the whole “rebranding” was just a scheme to bring more attention to their non-breakfast items.
The pancake chain began revamping its burgers more than a year ago, IHOP President Darren Rebelez told Business Insider, as it has tried to boost sales outside breakfast.
The IHOb name change was never meant to be permanent. And IHOP never took pancakes off the menu.
“The pancakes haven’t gone anywhere … They’re still there. They’re on the cover of the menu,” Rebelez said.
“Just because we have pancakes doesn’t mean we can’t do anything but pancakes. That’s what we’re after: giving more people more reasons to come to IHOP more often.”
To welcome back the official name, IHOP will be offering a deep discount on their pancake stacks.
We’re giving away 60¢ short stacks on July 17 from 7a-7p for IHOP’s 60th birthday. That’s right, IHOP! We’d never turn our back on pancakes (except for that time we faked it to promote our new burgers) pic.twitter.com/KsbkMJhKuf
— IHOP (@IHOP) July 9, 2018
It was a clever plan and at the very least it got people talking about non-breakfast items at the nation’s most visible breakfast joint.
Well played, IHOP. Well played.
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