IHOP’s pancake campaign boosts awareness for Children’s Miracle Network

For the 14^th year of IHOP’s Free Pancake Day, the restaurant chain introduced a twist: Not only would a panel anoint a winner from three finalists, all patients at a Children’s Miracle Network hospital, but for the first time, the winner’s pancake would appear for a limited time on IHOP’s menu.

Brody Simoncini claimed the top prize for his Oreo® Oh My Goodness pancake. Oreo® cookies have special meaning to Kid Chef Champion Brody. The cookie was the first solid food he could eat following surgery to correct a rare condition. He was born with most of his organs outside of his body.

Designed to raise awareness of the financial needs of children’s hospitals on National Pancake Day, the sales of the winning pancake raised $477,173 for CMN Hospitals and 88% of the media coverage of the day the campaign kicked off focused on the Kid Chef activation and charitable messaging, an increase of 33% over the previous year.