The Cracker Barrel kerfuffle proves the now powerful reach of the alternative/conservative press
While much of the entire “controversy” over the decision by Cracker Barrel to change and then restore its old logo seemed to me to be a tempest in a teapot, the fact that the firestorm itself quickly forced Cracker Barrel to back down tells us something far more important: The alternative press (mostly conservative) is no longer confined to the fringes of culture, but now has real reach throughout society.
This cultural change can’t be underlined enough. For most of my long life, conservative news and cultural outlets had little impact on the general culture. They would make their points, often cogently and based on facts, and find themselves generally ignored. Only a decade ago, when conservatives complained about the leftward drift by major corporations or universities into racial quotas, bigotry, blacklists, censorship, and totalitarian Marxism, few noticed and more significantly, the companies or universities shrugged off the criticisms nonchalantly, as if the complaints were nothing more than a tiny gnat flying about in the air.
I speak from experience, because a decade ago I was posting regularly about this drift in both universities and corporations, was getting my posts picked up by many conservative news aggregates, and yet those posts had no impact at all. Nothing changed. If anything, the corporations and universities cited actually accelerated their racial quotas and their emphasis on bigotry, blacklists, censorship, and totalitarian Marxism.
No more. In the past four years the general culture and how it gets its information has fundamentally changed. That culture now listens to the right, and the result is fast and immediate change.
The Cracker Barrel kerfuffle proves this. Cracker Barrel proudly announced its logo change on August 19, 2025. In less than 24 hours numerous conservatives across the entire internet were lambasting the company about it, accusing the company of abandoning its past and going woke. This comment was quite typical:
Cracker Barrel’s CEO and leadership clearly hate the company’s customers and see their mission as re-educating them with the principles of gay race communism.
In reading these outbursts of outrage over the changed logo, the whole thing seemed to me to utterly absurd. On its face, the management had apparently decided to simplify the logo in order to make it easier to spot on those interstate standardized “exit food signs”, since the bulk of Cracker Barrel’s business comes from this interstate travel. There was no obvious element of “woke” in the new design, other than illustrating that Cracker Barrel’s management had the typical lack of imagination of most corporate executives.
Thus, the controversy seemed silly and petty, which made it even more surprising how quickly Cracker Barrel backed down. In less than a week the company’s management felt the need to do damage control, issuing a statement of apology about the removal of the old guy from the logo.
If the last few days have shown us anything, it’s how deeply people care about Cracker Barrel. We’re truly grateful for your heartfelt voices. … You’ve also shown us that we could’ve done a better job sharing who we are and who we’ll always be. What has not changed, and what will never change, are the values this company was built on when Cracker Barrel first opened in 1969: hard work, family, and scratch-cooked food made with care. A place where everyone feels at home, no matter where you’re from or where you’re headed.
…We love seeing how much you care about our ‘old timer.’ We love him too. Uncle Herschel will still be on our menu (welcome back Uncle Herschel’s Favorite Breakfast Platter), on our road signs, and featured in our country store. He’s not going anywhere—he’s family.
This pandering statement however wasn’t enough however to cool things down, especially because the company was still determined to stick with the simplified logo. The protests continued, and thus only two days later the company announced it was abandoning the logo change entirely.
“We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel. We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain,” the company said in a statement.
The First Amendment, reborn
It should be noted that many of those on the right who protested weren’t merely triggered by the logo change. There had been ample evidence in the past two years that the corporate heads at Cracker Barrel were going woke, buying into the queer agenda in ways that without doubt were very offensive to its customer base.
Nonetheless, the big take-away from this story is how it proves the alternative/conservative press is no longer an outlier in our culture. It has now has wide reach, the public reads it, and no longer dismisses its reports as unimportant.
The result is that in less than two weeks, a simple logo change became a public relations nightmare for a major corporation, forcing it to respond to quell the controversy.
The consequences of this change are immeasurable. No longer will this country’s cultural debate be dominated by the left. A truly marketplace of ideas has been reborn, and the fruits of that debate in the coming years can only be positive.
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The country is going in the correct general direction.
I had no issue with the “NEW” corporate logo, but then when you looked further into the corporate culture of DEI and associated agendas you could see this entire show going the way of Bud Light.
And as soon as that was realized the corporate turn was quickly made.
And the initial rebrand cost, $100 million?
Thats a lot of cheese.
“The 660-store restaurant chain has allocated between $600 million and $700 million to the rebranding effort over the next three years. In fiscal 2025, the first 25 to 30 locations will have been remodeled.
Masino declared that the results of the modernization efforts have been “overwhelmingly positive.” Yet outside of her corporate echo chamber, the response has been anything but – overwhelmingly negative is a more accurate description.”
The country like I said, is going in the correct general direction.
“Now the name change makes more sense to you. This potential for war and world dominance is what is on the horizon and the signaling from the one side and being answered by the other is clear. ”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/why-the-name-change
The over 10% fall in the stock price in one day when all this hit the fan, most likely had a large effect also. You don’t want to be another Budlight as Cotour also mentioned.
I wonder if COVID played a role….until then Joe Q and Sally Housecoat didn’t know what school books their kids read. Both worked.
There was a nationwide teacher strike a few years ago–but when teach’ wanted to be paid to stay home, with Biden’s poor performance right after MSNBC said he was of sound mind…the needle started to move in the other direction.
That and Bill Buckley was boring.
I think the GUTFELD! show is a true influencer
In the past, Dad drove to work while listening to Rush –but had Sports Talk on driving back exhaust and all anybody wanted to do was eat and go to bed…. maybe listen to Leno or something. Wifey watched her stories, and the early Internet was Drudge or something….bored of zippergate.
The better funded Soros folks were most assuredly NOT exhausted at the end of the day.
Despite the so-called hush-Rush bill, many viewed talk-radio as a bone thrown to the opposition, with the Left still having movies and being better connected than the old Cracker Barrel patrons who still have land-lines….like me.
The smartphone (while making us all stooped over) made the public it’s own entertainment. Tom Snyder thought that the Internet needed an Uncle Milky.
“That isn’t how any of this works.”
GUTFELD might be the closest to Berle anyway.
While Norman Lear and others can give political talking points to actors–I can make them eat spaghetti with a Smartphone.
This is why I think the era of patents, copyrights and trademarks needs to end… because that is the Achilles’ Heel of the Screen Actor’s Guild.
A lot of folks don’t like me.
They don’t like what I have to say.
That’s the point.
Fake woke agenda backfires, fake science titillating the gullible, and fake news that never happened with the covering up of real news that would change everything, like the hunter laptop that the CIA and FBI swore was fake.
Benny asked Tulsi Gabbard about project mockingbird and she confirmed that the CIA still writes the stories for the major news outlets. (why hire reporters when you can get your pre approved news stories for free?… The real news you can’t print without permission or your primary source of funding will dry up… and possibly you will fall out the window like they do in Russia?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9_YJakoccE
It seems things on the Internet are getting better, or are they?
I typed in Dr. Andrew Zywiec webpage, and it claimed it didn’t exist. I did a search using his name and found a two year old interview on YouTube where he tells his story and how he is continuously shadow band.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_14NGZesSg
I took a screenshot when his webpage came up on the screen, and the picture was blank! I took others including where his interview was at the top of my phone with other options and shows on the lower half of my screen and the screenshot captured the lower half but the interview still showed blank! Does this happen to others?
Thank goodness for alternative media that sidesteps the CIA evil overlords control, whoever they are… European economic forum? or black rock?… it is said that $15-$30 trillion changed hands during the Covid shut down, what can that kind of money buy? entire countries?
The emergency authorization has been canceled, COVID shots no longer have emergency use authorization and Pharmacies can’t afford the liability! The same for hundreds of others experimental drugs being tested on people bypassing animal experimentation.
Even the fake reporting of bird flu, and the destroying of thousands of chicken farms across the US country have stopped. (it’s funny how bird flu didn’t cross the US border to either Canada or Mexico)
The guy at the end of the interview was pushing his new book on the Zika virus which was foreplay for the coronavirus. Headlines Zika across the world just to disappear two years later. (after Obamas Congress authorized $2 billion for a vaccine… Where is it? What happened to the money? What happened to the virus?)
The left is all fake.
Stolen government money fed into propaganda machines to make their numbers look bigger than they really are.
When was the last time the left threatened to stop buying a product and that product lost customers and value?
Never.
Like Robert, I was initially perplexed by the kerfuffle for the reasons stated. Simplification to enhance recognition. I had not realized that the logo change was a stalking horse for Woke, and thus a lightning rod. But Woke hasn’t really taken hold of the company in any meaningful way, because they kept the ‘Cracker’; that derogatory, racist word for White people.
Where in the name of all that is Holy were the Social Justice Warriors?! By their own lights, ‘Cracker Barrel’ should be as offensive as ‘Sambo’s’ was. The majority racial demographic is highly-visibly and publically demeaned 24/7/365 on highways traveled by millions. You’d think someone might have at least noticed. Was ‘Country Barrel’ taken? Color me surprised, but are there different standards for different people?
Blair “Cracker” refers to the contents of barrels of, wait for it, crackers. The derogatory, if that was truly the original sentiment for those known that way, aspect is cobbled onto the story by race hustlers. And, we do not have to accept it every time they find a way to detour the language. Stiffen your back when they tell you what to think.
Shoe box. Silverware drawer. Medicine cabinet. Oil drum. Cracker barrel. Root cellar. Clothes dryer. Window screen. Vegetable crisper.
We must learn to end manufactured racial strife so that when we move into outer space it does not compete with the attention to the mission or permeate and imperil our existence there too.
I guess I have a different take on this issue, and on the “what comes first, the media coverage or the outrage” thing? First, the outrage over CB wasn’t that it changed its logo, but rather the loyal diners were ever gonna see the “old Cracker Barrel” service and food quality again. Cause that has been a constant complaint, growing for years. I once dined there every week, now… never — because the food quality slipped and the service isn’t nearly as good.
Second, most folks think that the media sets the public tone, and in many cases, it does. However, most column-writers are too busy to create new hysterias, and their editors simply want “the same old content, quickly and cheaply”. The backlash has to start somewhere else — ie, astroturf (those “protests” over jean ads were surely astroturf’d) or maybe even actual reactions from “the people.”
I was surprised to find out how much Cracker Barrel spent on LGBT+Q#!^ Whenever leftist gain power it becomes about the woke mind infection, and not for example the restaurant business. They can do what they want, and nobody is forced to go there. See how that works.
I didn’t think this was the hill to die on, but okay, it’s always nice to get a win.
Terrible restaurant before the “rebrand.”
Still a terrible overpriced chain restaurant.
This isn’t rocket science ladies and gentlemen.
When it fails, try not to believe your own hype.
At least it looks like old General Stores.
They sold dynamite and cocaine both.
Even tho I’ve visited the states multiple times, I’ve never heard of cracker barrel, but the reporting of, and comments on this “story” made me wonder how it would be angled differently if it was more left wing protest that prompted the change back to their original logo? ( I know the answer… Very different
… Woke loony left.. freedom of speech… Capitulation to communist agenda, etc )
I really don’t understand the controversy behind this so called “story’ … Many companies change their branding, with no outpouring of rage… Loony right? I’ve been saying the pendulum always swings back for many years now.
And for what it is worth, I often get called “cracker” , along with “wigger” by my black mates… I reply with similar comments. It’s all good natured fun, and no one gets butt hurt, we all laugh and go about our day. Just how it should be. It’s not what you say, but how you say it, and how you mean it.
First she destroyed Taco Bell…..
Julie Felss Masino, 2019 Innovation Award-Winner,
UCLA Extension Restaurant Industry Conference
https://youtu.be/_0OHTE6rQQU
40:59
let us consult my Marketing 101 Textbook:
“A brand is an inherently valuable asset that has the following characteristics:
-Intangible: It is an intangible asset that can’t be separated from the offering. It is a perception of the identity the offering has that is often used to recognize it and differentiate it from other products.
-Dynamic: A brand is more of an experience than just an identity. Every customer might have a different perception of the brand according to his/her experience with the same.
-Distinctive: The sole purpose of developing a brand is to develop a distinctive identity having human-like features like name, color, personality, etc.
-Amorphous: Branding doesn’t have constraints. Offerings are branded, and brand experiences are created at almost every touchpoint, and such experiences and interactions have infinite possibilities.
-Emotional: Branding is when a human-like personality is associated with an offering. Such human-like personalities develop emotional connections with customers.
-Highly Recognizable: Brands are highly recognizable and differentiable. They have their own attributes that help their customers recognize and differentiate them from generic offerings as well as from other players in the market.
–Consistent: A brand develops an identity which, when consistent, develops an image (perception) in the minds of the customers. Hence, consistency is an important characteristic of a brand.
Brand Elements:
-Visual Identity: Brand visual identity includes the recognizable and communicable brand outlook like name, logo, color, slogan, typography, graphics, etc.
-Brand Associations: These are the associations that come to the customers’ mind when they think of the brand. These can be advertisements, brand ambassadors, brand’s offering features, class, lifestyle, emotions, etc.
-Brand Purpose: Brand purpose represents what the company stands for and what are its social obligations towards society, consumers, and the environment.
-Brand Promise: It’s the value customers expect to get whenever they interact with the brand or buy its offerings.
-Brand Identity: Brand identity is the set of all the branding activities a company indulges in order to be perceived in a particular way to the target audience.
-Brand Personality: Brand personality is the association of human characteristics and traits with the brand to which the customers can relate.
-Brand Voice: Brand voice is the uniformity in the selection of words, the attitude and values of the brand while addressing the target audience or others.
-Brand Image: Brand image is an aggregate of beliefs, ideas, and impressions that a customer holds regarding the brand.
-Brand Experience: Brand experience is awakening a holistic sensory experience to build an all-rounding relationship between customers and a brand.
-Brand Equity: Brand equity is the aggregate of assets and liabilities attached to the brand name and symbol, which results in the relationship customers have with the brand.
-Brand Architecture: Brand architecture is an organized structure of the company’s portfolio of brands, sub-brands, and other offerings. “
This woman shot taco bell in the foot.
Now she hires the very same consultant group that did the Bud Light debacle.
And Lees S.
Its not so much the logo change but the overall corporate change.
First it was an Americana tradition thing. People liked it because the food was fresh and cooked in the store daily and the place looked a little like an old fashioned general store. older people liked it all.
This board of director and the she male changed the cooking to just reheating prepacked food to save money. Quality has been dropping for the last few years.
Then they decided to try to appeal to younger customers. So they changed all the interior decorations from old Americana items to pictures of old Americana.
They even decided to change the menu items to try to appeal to a different demographic. It has not worked youth customers who go to collage and bars do not go to CB. No matter what the menu is. They will later in middle age.
And finally the new logo was just lets say polity, not good at all. It is very boring and shows no thought. A high school art student who hated CB could have done better.
The real goal of all of this could have been to get “even bad press is good press” idea going, but it drastically effected their stock price.
Cloudflare acted up for a second.
@pzatchok,
Thanks for the explanation. I can only agree that the new logo is a bit poop, but I couldn’t understand why all the fuss. I stand educated!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EX_AheqWvs