New York (CNN) — A revealing detail emerged from Cracker Barrel’s announcement last week that CEO Julie Masino is stepping down: She’s leaving with company-funded security still in place from the public meltdown over Cracker Barrel’s rebrand last year.
Let’s pause there. The CEO of Cracker Barrel — Cracker Barrel, folks — needs extra security because an online mob went after the company for…a logo change.
If there was ever a sign of our rage-filled times, this is it. An executive nobody had heard of became a target of online attacks for the offense of trying to turn around a fading chicken and biscuits restaurant. In our way too online world, a typical corporate rebrand was whipped up into the radical left destroying a “beloved American aesthetic.”
Americans are angry about the economy and politics. But they feel they can’t control these huge forces. So anyone and anything can become a stand-in for their outrage, even if the target didn’t do anything to hurt any of us, like the random woman who got death threats after she was caught on cam with her boss at a Coldplay concert.
Big brands, which are highly sensitive to public pressure, have become an easy target for frustration. It’s quicker to rack up likes on social media griping about a logo than it is to go out and build housing. People go into a frenzy over Cracker Barrel changing its logo, Bud Light’s promotional social media post with a transgender influencer and Target for publicly backtracking on DEI.
Clinging to anything that appears symbolic of larger culture wars serves as a nice distraction from real things going on in America, said Alison Taylor, a clinical associate professor of business and society at NYU’s Stern Business School.
“It gives the public a sense of agency,” she said. “A brand is more likely to respond to stakeholder demands and pressure, more quickly, than a member of Congress.”
Companies stepped into the fray starting in the early 2010s, staking out positions on social issues like climate change, racial inequality and gay rights. Companies supposedly went “woke” by hiring diversity officers, pledging to lower their carbon emissions and supporting Pride parades— even if their commitments were often more performative than substance. (Tractor Supply and John Deere as left-wing crusaders? Really?)
An “anti-woke” contingent on the right rebelled, and companies rolled back their commitments as Trump retook the White House.
Enter Cracker Barrel. The faux outrage was egged on by professional right-wing provocateurs like Robby Starbuck, Benny Johnson and a leading investor in MAGA darling Steak n’ Shake.
The thing is, the very same people so outraged over a logo change had likely forgotten Cracker Barrel existed. The whole reason Masino became CEO in 2023 was because Cracker Barrel desperately needed to attract people under the age of 65. Its aging customer base had stopped eating out or died during the pandemic, and older customers were still hesitant to go back.
Cracker Barrel was getting crushed by rivals like Chili’s and Texas Roadhouse by the time Masino arrived. “We’re just not as relevant as we once were,” she admitted shortly after becoming CEO.
She did what restaurants do when they’re struggling: spruce up dining areas and change the menu. And there were signs the turnaround was working. Cracker Barrel posted five straight quarters of sales growth before it all blew up last August when the company unveiled its logo change.
The company switched to a minimalist logo, scrapping the namesake barrel and the “old-timer” figure —pretty average corporate fare. But none of that mattered.
“It’s not about this particular restaurant chain — who cares — but about creating massive pressure against companies that are considering any move that might appear to be ‘wokification,’” leading conservative activist Christopher Rufo said on X at the time.
What exactly were Cracker Barrel’s “radical left-wing politics” and “DEI regime?”: a Facebook post in support of Pride month and typical employee resource groups, including for the 30% of minorities who make up Cracker Barrel’s workforce.
Within days, Cracker Barrel reversed course, reverting to its “Old Timer” logo and canceling plans to remodel restaurants.
The change is “a BIG win in the culture war for America,” one right-wing activist declared on X.
Masino went on a public apology tour, going on conservative firebrand Glenn Beck’s podcast in November for what the show marketed as a “vulnerable tell-all.”
“I want people to love this place,” Masino said as she held back tears.
Beck leaned over and patted her on the arm.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of quarters Cracker Barrel’s comparable sales had grown before its logo change. It posted five straight quarters of growth.
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