US pancake parlour IHOP has come unstuck with its Mother’s Day promotion, after an image of a stack of pancake stack photoshopped within an ultrasound scan of a woman’s uterus sparked a shitstorm on Twitter.
The unorthodox marketing approach was timed to coincide with Mother’s Day in the US, which falls on the second Sunday of May, with the tweet: “If you have pancakes in your tum tum, does that make you a pancake mum mum? Happy Mother’s Day to ALL the moms out there!”
If you have pancakes in your tum tum, does that make you a pancake mum mum? Happy Mother’s Day to ALL the moms out there! pic.twitter.com/wauH9sYvDb
— IHOP (@IHOP) May 12, 2019
Unfortunately the unappetising message wasn’t long in turning the stomachs of most who saw it with Tony Posnanski tweeting for many when he wrote: “What the fuck is this shit? Why didn’t you just post a stack of fucking pancakes like a normal fucking pancake house?!”
What the fuck is this shit? Why didn’t you just post a stack of fucking pancakes like a normal fucking pancake house?
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) May 12, 2019
Others were more troubled at the conflation of a human embryo with dessert as in the case of Tom Brown who wrote: “In Georgia they consider it a pancake as soon as the egg is cracked,”while others questioned how the chain could have blindly blundered into one of the most heated debates in US politics.
In Georgia they consider it a pancake as soon as the egg is cracked
— Tom Bown (@bown) May 12, 2019
An avalanche of obligatory gif’s duly followed as others poked fun at iHOP’s expense although the offending tweet itself remains live as of this morning.
IHOP’s creative is the most left-field of a barrage of Mother’s Day campaigns from around the world.