RIP IHOb, 2018-2018

All you burger fans out there, I have some sad news: The International House of Burgers (née the International House of Pancakes) is going back to its maiden name. Take a few seconds; breathe in, breathe out. We’re going to get through this.

For the blissfully unaware, IHOb was a marketing stunt of a name change pulled off by IHOP. The chain announced it was changing its name last month. At first, the company only announced the acronym, leading many to wonder what the “b” would stand for. Some thought “blockchain.” Others thought “bees.” Sadly, the change was merely “burgers.” This was all a ploy to get people to remember that IHOP isn’t just a pancake joint–it serves other food, too.

When this was announced, the question remained: Will this name change be permanent? Will every iconic IHOP sign around the country have to have its “p” inverted? We knew the answer, of course: This is 2018 and marketing stunts are the only thing brands know how to do. And yet, despite the online fervor around the name change, the burger campaign didn’t seem to improve the restaurant chain’s actual business.

In any case, now things are going back to normal. On a Facebook video uploaded today, IHOP announced a new stunt, this time celebrating the company’s 60th anniversary. The company name in the announcement was “IHOP.”

“That’s right, IHOP!” the Facebook post wrote. “We’d never turn our back on pancakes (except for that time we faked it to promote our new burgers).”

We’ve been duped, people. I guess we should pour one out for IHOb, though.