IHOP Acknowledges It Faked IHOb Name Change

IHOb is no longer, as IHOP has officially returned to its original name and admitted its recent [...]

By Hannah Barnes

IHOb is no longer, as IHOP has officially returned to its original name and admitted its recent name change was all in the name of publicity.

The company admitted to the fake-out on Twitter on Monday while tweeting about its upcoming pancake deal.

"That's right, IHOP!" the tweet read. "We'd never turn our back on pancakes (except for that time we faked it to promote our new burgers)."

Last month, IHOP announced that it would be changing its name to IHOb, initially keeping the new initial's meaning a secret.

"For 60 pancakin' years, we've been IHOP," read the post. "Now, we're flippin' our name to IHOb. Find out what it could b on 6.11.18."

The restaurant soon revealed that the new letter stood for burgers, with a new line of burgers arriving on the menu in an attempt to expand the chain's audience beyond breakfast.

The announcement didn't go over too well with social media, with fans and fellow fast-food restaurants alike slamming the move.

"Not really afraid of the burgers from a place that decided pancakes were too hard," Wendy's wrote.

Burger King took a page out of Taylor Swift's book with their response, tweeting "sorry, old Burger King can't come to the phone right now..."

The restaurant had been tweeting with the hashtag #IHOb up until July 7 and used the platform to reassure customers of its loyalty after revealing the name was a publicity stunt.

"We were always IHOP, we just had some burgers to bromote," the chain explained to one fan.

"The blan was to get beople talking about our new burgers," it wrote to another. "And it worked."

To a third, they tweeted, "You can definitely trust us."

Photo Credit: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com

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