Why Twitter Wants You To Boycott IHOP

IHOP isn't a chain known for its political stances. Although Vox Media reveals that the parent company, Dine Equity, donates more to Republican candidates than Democrat ones, they say this is true of most corporate donors. For the most part, as far as IHOP is concerned, the only public statements the chain typically makes tend to be along the lines of "eat more pancakes."

It only takes one bad blueberry to spoil the pancake, though, and one IHOP franchise is purported to have taken an action that now has the entire organization feeling some heat (and not just from their pancake griddles). The hashtag #BoycottIHOP is now trending on Twitter, because one restaurant chose to lay its labor shortage woes directly at the door of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The target of today's Twitterverse dunks appears to be sign posted inside an IHOP, blaming the location's reduced hours on "the fact that Joe Biden gave out way too much free money and nobody wants to work anymore." Beyond Twitter, websites like JordanThrilla started connecting dots, including the fact that at least 43 Paycheck Protection Loans from the federal government were given out to IHOP proprietors, according to ProPublica's records. However, this conveniently ignores that the vast majority of IHOPs are individually owned franchises, and there's no way of knowing if the particular location where the sign was posted received the COVID-19 pandemic relief money. What's more, while IHOP has downsized its menu and closed a number of restaurants, many of these measures date back to a previous administration.

Twitter did as Twitter does and got users on both ends of the political spectrum quite worked up about the ostensible imputations that Biden is to blame for IHOP's worker shortage. As one tweeted in rebuttal, "No, IHOP. They're not quitting because of Biden. They're quitting because you underpay them. IHOP is a MAGA chain. Don't eat IHOP's over-priced, unhealthy, fascist pancakes." Another asked the rhetorical question "Why do companies like these who fail to satisfy their employees need someone else to blame for their failures when people choose to work elsewhere?" They also supplied an answer, "How about "because we pay s*** and we treat our employees like garbage, no one wants to work here?" 

Not everyone was onboard with the boycott, however. One Twitter user pointed out more potential problems, including how the boycott is based on the alleged actions of a single franchise or even "could just be something a single manager did." The same poster also suggested that "anyone could have put it there for the photo just to stir outrage." Another, no Biden fan, posted "#BoycottIHOP is so stupid and so is anyone pushing for it" accompanied by a gif of Donald Duck captioned 'It's Pancake Day!'"