All You Can Eat Pancakes = One Serving Of Pancakes

Since my novel The Garden of Good and Evil Pancakes is due out in spring of this year from EAB Publishing, I find myself paying more attention to pancakes than I perhaps would be otherwise. The thing that’s messing with my mind right now? The ‘all you can eat’ pancake ads going on right now for IHOP.

Make no mistake, I am a fan of pancakes. However, any mention of all you can eat pancakes bugs me. Maybe I’m the only one (though I doubt it), but for me the following equation is always true:

All I Can Eat Pancakes = One Serving of Pancakes

Never, in all that I can remember, have I ever gotten to the end of a stack of pancakes and thought: Boy, what I could really go for right now is some more pancakes. No, a single stack of pancakes literally is all the pancakes I can eat at a single time. At that point, as much as I love them, I’m utterly done with pancakes for the immediate time. Never do I want to order more.

Sure, perhaps if I was only served a single pancake I might want one or two more. However, pancakes are almost always served in a stack of three (two at the usual lower limit). That’s all I want. That’s all I can eat.

I know ‘all you can eat’ deals are popular because people feel like they’re getting a deal. Before you are eating pancakes, you might think you want a lot. The ability to gorge. However, I’m betting few people really get much value out of an all you can eat pancake deal unless they absolutely force themselves. It can be done, but who wants to?

I’m sure this campaign works well for IHOP, but it just bugs me. Thought I’d share that.