The new IHOP logo looks familiar...

IHOP has updated its logo, clearly creating a happy face as part of the mark. The smile is also a big part of their new branding effort, which includes a "What are smiles made of?" tagline and a #IHOPSmile social media campaign. 

But when I took a closer look at the 'happy face' integrated into the logo....

Am I the only one that sees this??

LESSON FOR MARKETERS

I've never been a big fan of focus groups, mostly because they are extremely difficult to do correctly, and they almost never yield statistically significant data. But in a case like this, getting a bunch of people together that aren't a part of the process (of creating the new logo) might have helped identify this potential likeness. All it takes is for one person to point out what everyone else misses, which can sometimes lead to a different or better outcome. 

YOUR TURN

Did you see it? Does it even matter?