Twitter Feed News: IHOb

“Twitter Feed News" is a new column from Step Up Magazine. We know that many people get their news from Twitter. We also know that many people do not do further research on what they see in their feed. This column features topics seen on Twitter and gives a more in-depth look than a tweet can provide in 280 characters.

This week’s trending topics on Twitter were chaotic and all over the place. From news of Ariana Grande’s engagement, to the sudden change in IHOP’s name to IHOb, to the trending hashtag “weird things I’ve Googled," this week’s Tweeters did not have a moment’s rest to catch up.

While many were expressing a lot of different opinions surrounding Ariana Grande’s engagement news, it’s safe to say that no topic was more controversial than IHOP’s latest marketing move.

The initial idea that IHOP was to change its name was shocking already, but its replacement name was deemed by many to be even more outrageous. The International House of Pancakes is now the International House of Burgers. Many people thought the chain would instead be changing into a more inclusive version of itself — the International House of Breakfast, which makes more sense due to the nature of the chain’s popular menu items.

It is safe to say that the general public is not happy with this decision. Most Americans do not purchase anything besides breakfast items from the company. It would make more sense if they changed the name to the International House of Breakfast.

Restaurant goers are not the only people to have publicly criticized the new change - other chains have also taken it upon themselves to ridicule and mock the new name. Wendy’s tweeted, “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."

A&W Restaurants joked that they were rebranding too. They tweeted, “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.)"

Out of all the fellow chains, Burger King took the most advantage of the name change and joined the bandwagon. Burger King changed its name — not handle — on social media to Pancake King. The internet is definitely enjoying Pancake King’s pettiness.

In a way, IHOb’s  controversial marketing move worked: it surely let consumers know that burgers are on the menu, as well as the more well-known breakfast items.

Insider decided to have an employee try two out of the seven new burgers to see if they are just as good as the pancakes. While I haven’t had the chance to try the burgers, I’ve decided to be a believer after reading their article. In it, a quote by IHOb’s president, Darren Rebelez, reassures consumers by stating “burgers are really kind of unexpected for us, so we had to do something creative to get everyone's attention. But the pancakes aren't going anywhere."

Knowing that the pancakes are to stay is definitely reassuring. This change is apparently only temporary, which is most likely why the B (for burgers) is stylized as lowercase. This is because a “b" is a  “P" upside down.

While clever, this move  has undeniably gained more negative attention than positive. However, the saying does go “all press is good press." Each time the name change is mentioned, it’s free press for IHOb.

Will you be trying a burger? Let us know in the comments!