Cracker Barrel’s logo change didn’t last long in the face of MAGA’s weird furor over the southern-themed restaurant chain’s “woke” transformation.
“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 posted to X on Tuesday.
“At Cracker Barrel, it’s always been – and always will be – about serving up delicious food, warm welcomes, and the kind of country hospitality that feels like family. As a proud American institution, our 70,000 hardworking employees look forward to welcoming you to our table soon.”
But the company’s decision to scrap its minimalist redesign and return to the classic logo featuring an old man leaning on a barrel didn’t come without drama.
When the initial announcement about the company’s makeover dropped on Aug. 19, right-wingers like Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump Jr. took to their respective corners of the internet to post and repost unhinged graphics and accusatory claims.
Related | Trump thinks he’s president of Cracker Barrel too
“Cracker Barrel’s new logo isn’t an accident — it’s CEO Julie Felss Masino’s project. She scrapped a beloved American aesthetic and replaced it with sterile, soulless branding,” declared an X account called Woke War Room. Trump Jr. reposted the screed for his 15 million followers to read and added, “WTF is wrong with Cracker Barrel??!”
Complaining about Masino’s push for diversity initiatives behind the scenes, Woke War Room added, “She should resign and be replaced with leadership that will restore Cracker Barrel’s tradition.”
Kirk—MAGA’s favorite ragebaiter—decided to take the logo change a sexist step further.
Calling back to American Eagle’s controversial blue jeans ad featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, Kirk posted a side-by-side comparison of Cracker Barrel’s old logo and a photo of Sweeney. Below it, he included the modernized logo next to a larger woman clad in blue jeans.
“Accurate,” he wrote in the caption.
But as MAGA minions spewed hate and vile words over the mere removal of an illustrated man from a 56-year-old chain’s logo, it was the president whose unsolicited opinion seemed to make the company back down.
“Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll) and manage the company better than ever before,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Tuesday, just hours before the company announced the change.
Per White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich, a Cracker Barrel official later called him to thank Trump for “weighing in on the issue.”
“They wanted the President to know that they heard him, along with customer response (the ultimate poll), and would be restoring the ‘Old Timer,’” Budowich wrote.
This continues a trend that has seen companies taking political stances that either appease Trump or stand their ground in the name of diversity and inclusion.
Related | So much for diversity: Companies kowtow to conservatives and ditch DEI
As Target suffered for kicking DEI to the curb to make the president happy, others—like Costco and Levi’s—flourished when they refused to cut diversity programs.
And while Sweeney’s American Eagle ad became a dogwhistle for the right’s white, skinny cause, other denim brands pushed the envelope in the other direction.
Capitalizing on the PR heat, Levi’s promoted a partnership with Beyoncé while Gap’s collaboration with the diverse K-pop group Katseye went megaviral and kept the denim debate going weeks later.
Ultimately, it seems, a marketing campaign’s success when it treads into political territory depends entirely on which team they decide to bat for.