IHOP Got Trolled by Every Other Brand Over their Decision to Change their Name to IHOb

By Dustin Rowles | Social Media | June 11, 2018 |

By Dustin Rowles | Social Media | June 11, 2018 |

In case you hadn’t heard (of course, you have heard), IHOP announced today that it was changing its name to IHOb, the International House of Burgers (the name change is temporary) in order to promote its new line of hamburgers. On the one hand, the amount of attention this has drawn can surely be considered a win for a restaurant trying to roll out menu items more appropriate to lunch and dinner. On the other hand, there was no shortage of ridicule from the social media accounts from several other brands.

Wendy’s, which by the way makes burgers so terrible that I can recognize how awful they are even when I’m wasted, hit IHOb hard.

Remember when you were like 7 and thought changing your name to Thunder BearSword would be super cool?
Like that, but our cheeseburgers are still better.

— Wendy's (@Wendys) June 11, 2018

A lot of other brands jumped in on this burn:

Not really afraid of the burgers from a place that decided pancakes were too hard.

— Wendy's (@Wendys) June 11, 2018

Wendy’s this is so good

— MoonPie (@MoonPie) June 11, 2018

😂 Thanks MoonPie!

— Wendy's (@Wendys) June 11, 2018

MoonPie I second that and Wendy's great work A+ you've earned your pay can we all go home now

— Pop-Tarts (@PopTartsUS) June 11, 2018

Oh no

— MoonPie (@MoonPie) June 11, 2018

Elsewhere, White Castle also weighed in, even though the onions on those burgers are terrible and the sliders are basically just condiments and bread:

We are excited to announce that we will be switching our name to Pancake Castle.

— White Castle (@WhiteCastle) June 11, 2018

Here’s Whataburger:

As much as we love our pancakes, we'd never change our name to Whatapancake

— Whataburger® (@Whataburger) June 11, 2018

Steak-umm changed their name for the day:

dear internet

we have officially changed our name to Cake-umm because Steak-umm just wasn't doing it for us anymore or something

— Cake-umm (@steak_umm) June 11, 2018

Burger King is now Pancake King:

sorry, old Burger King can’t come to the phone right now…

— Pancake King (@BurgerKing) June 11, 2018

Hot Pockets entertained the idea:

bocket like it's hot pic.twitter.com/lwroiI3iVB

— Hot Pockets (@hotpockets) June 11, 2018

I don’t know what this means, but A&W doesn’t, either:

Inspired by the International House of Burgers announcement, we are also changing our name (Please do not ask what it means — we don’t know either.) pic.twitter.com/0HPQtQirHn

— A&W Restaurants (@awrestaurants) June 11, 2018

Chili’s had words:

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

We do make some pretty delicious Crispers and Waffles but we didn't change our name to Waffle's.

— Chili's Grill & Bar (@Chilis) June 11, 2018

DiGiorno threw some shade:

You probably already knew that. pic.twitter.com/m0DXwUk9h8

— DiGiorno (@DiGiorno) June 11, 2018

Waffle House was over here subtweeting:

Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity. - Bruce Lee

— Waffle House (@WaffleHouse) June 11, 2018

Even Netflix got in on the action:

brb changing my name to Netflib

— Netflix US (@netflix) June 11, 2018

The lesson here? Big promotional stunts like this work in raising awareness, but raising awareness also has its downsides.