Driving around the various routes and highways in New Jersey the past couple of months I noticed that iHop was trying to really show off their burgers to the car commuter crowd.
Now I remember being broke and in college, driving around late at night and looking for a sit down place where we could have a hot meal without breaking the bank. One year, for some reason, iHop was our spot. My friend would always get a cheeseburger. It was cheap and surprisingly not bad.
So, putting two together, when iHop announced that they’d be temporarily changing their name to “iHob” like it was this great mystery, I had a feeling it was a promotional tool for them to try and get customers excited about their burgers. I guess other people don’t pay as much attention to billboards as I do (probably because they’re too busy focusing on the road, psh, nerds) because people were a bit surprised that the “b” stands for burgers.
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And people really weren’t having it.
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In fact, there were a ton of memes that accurately summed up just how much we weren’t feeling the “iHob” rebranding.
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The king of food service Twitter, Wendy’s, even threw in their two cents about how bad of an idea it was.
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They were relentless.
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Wendy’s was so savage, even the police responded to their tweets.
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In iHop’s defense, they provided a pretty classy reply.
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People began pointing out the obvious: that most peeps don’t visit iHop for their burgers.
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Others were convinced that the chain is straight up trolling people.
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And even offered up some better ideas of their own.
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Like, much better ideas.
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If someone’s headed to an iHop, they’re more than likely going in there for a hot plate of pancakes and/or eggs and bacon – not a burger.
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Ironic nostalgia memes are already starting to pop up.
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It doesn’t seem like anyone’s buying it.
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People shared other branding fails from other companies. Apparently, Colgate tried getting into TV dinners.
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No, seriously.
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Some are even calling it worse than the time “New Coke” came to the market.
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Other companies just couldn’t help themselves from roasting the pancake conglomerate.
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No matter what, some people are still going to hit up iHop for breakfast food – there’s nothing that’ll change their minds.
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Even Whataburger got their shots in.
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Waffle House even came at them too, in a weirdly philosophical way.
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There are customers who will still visit their beloved franchise – for the reason they’ve been visiting it all along, however.
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Some have theories that the newfound love for burgers might come from a specific gang affiliation the breakfast food chain has made.
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Others are just insulted at the complete rebranding the pancake house is making.
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For some, it’s been “iHob” all along.
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Others think that the “burger pivot” wasn’t really all that planned.
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There are some visionary Twitter users who are hoping that iHop will provided yummy burger/pancake concoctions like this.
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For some, it’s more about the pancakes, it’s about the memories they’ve made at iHop.
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It just seems like such a hard sell.
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I mean, I guess there are worse names they could’ve gone with.
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Let’s just hope if they are changing their signs, they’re a bit more inviting looking than this one.
Source : http://www.distractify.com/humor/2018/06/11/Z1T2fXG/ihob-vs-ihop