Biggest controversy of my lifetime...new Cracker Barrel logo

[+ BOZO T CLOWN]

This lesson should have been learned decades ago when Coca-Cola tried to replace their soft drink with "New Coke". Nobody bought New Coke. People that still had cans of the old Coca-Cola were hoarding it. The old stuff was like gold for a while. The company finally reversed it after wasting all that money and watching their stock crash.

And how did it work out for shareholders of Budweiser when they decided to hire a transgender social activist as their spokesperson for Bud Light? A $1.2 billion loss and an ignominious tumble from the #1 beer sold worldwide to #3. 
After Dylan destroyed Budweiser, ANY corporate entity that puts its shareholders at risk this carelessly must be shown the door, harshly and hastily.

What was going through the mind of that 3-named imbecile with a Bachelor of Arts Degree? She dishonored and disrespected CB's most loyal customers. Why would Cracker Barrel want to get rid of their down home country atmosphere? That was the whole point of the business!

And what was the CB Board of Directors thinking about when they hired her in 2023? According to the Cracker Barrel website this is the NINTH different employer she's worked for in the last 20 years: Taco Bell, Mattel, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Starbucks, Godiva, Coach, J. Crew, and Macy's. Ms. Three Names can't hold a job!
https://investor.crackerbarrel.com/management/julie-felss-masino#:~:text=President and Chief Executive Officer,Directors%2C November 1%2C 2023.

Julie Felss-Masino, girl genius, must have skipped that chapter in her Business 101 textbook at Miami University in Ohio.

BTC
🤡
 

Edited Wednesday at 11:12 PM by BOZO T CLOWN

[pubic_assistance]

1 hour ago, BOZO T CLOWN said:

Why would Cracker Barrel want to get rid of their down home country atmosphere?

It appears that Corporate wanted to mainstream the brand so that they weren't so reliant on rednecks with big appetites. Just reporting the focus, not agreeing with the strategy. Personally,  I think it was a disaster waiting to happen.  But I've watched other dimwit CEOs try to "upgrade" in an effort to reach a broader audience and fail miserably. JC Penney comes to mind immediately. Macy Co. was probably the biggest retail disaster of all. In the food industry, Pizza Hut expanded and lost everything that made it worth visiting and Red Lobster also got desperate trying to climb out of a declining customer base by making things CHEAPER instead of upgrading.  In the end...the on-going destruction of the American middle class will continue to have an effect on many Corporate brands that rely on mass-market customers with a little extra cash in their pocket. 

[+ Gar1eth]

4 hours ago, mike carey said:

And suddenly it's 1903 with global domination a spectre on the horizon.

Pray tell what happened in 1903. 

[mike carey]

1 minute ago, Gar1eth said:

Pray tell what happened in 1903. 

Just a random date in the past.

[pubic_assistance]

56 minutes ago, Gar1eth said:

Pray tell what happened in 1903. 

The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party split into the: the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks

[+ Gar1eth]

6 hours ago, mike carey said:

And suddenly it's 1903 with global domination a spectre on the horizon.

 

2 hours ago, Gar1eth said:

Pray tell what happened in 1903. 

 

1 hour ago, pubic_assistance said:

The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party split into the: the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks

Thank you for the information. I had wondered if perhaps the year had anything to do with the break up of the Standard Oil Company. But I looked that up,  and it was in 1911.  
 

Plus on thinking about it now, I don't know that the break up of   Standard Oil  would have been important enough down under to  even receive an 'honorable mention' in @mike carey's school history books growing up.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:32 PM by Gar1eth

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

22 hours ago, BOZO T CLOWN said:

Lesson # 1: Never trust someone with three names - Julie Felss Masino

[samhexum]

Cracker Barrel quietly removes DEI and Pride pages from its website after logo upheaval

https://www.aol.com/finance/cracker-barrel-quietly-removes-dei-201039397.html

 

After backing away from a controversial logo rebrand loudly opposed by many right-wing influencers, Cracker Barrel also quietly made changes to its website this week.

The Tennessee-based roadside restaurant chain deleted a dedicated “Pride page” and scrubbed references to employee resource groups, including its LGBTQ+ and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging groups, from another part of its website.

“On behalf of Cracker Barrel’s LGBTQ+ Alliance & DEIB Team, we want to celebrate YOU for being YOU. It is our greatest Mission to ensure that Pleasing People means ‘all people,’” Cracker Barrel’s now-deleted Pride page read, according to a CNN review of the Wayback Machine.

The URL now redirects to the company’s “Culture and Belonging” page, which has also been revised, according to the Wayback Machine. The new version speaks more broadly about company culture but no longer lists its employee resource groups, which were publicly visible as recently as Tuesday, according to the archive.

In a statement to CNN, a Cracker Barrel spokesperson said the website updates reflected the removal of outdated content.

“In connection with the Company’s brand work, we have recently made updates to the Cracker Barrel website, including adding new content and removing out-of-date content,” the spokesperson said. “Several months ago, the Company also made changes to our Business Resource Groups that now focus all sponsorships or events on our corporate giving initiatives: addressing food insecurity, supporting community needs through food, and reducing food waste.”

[pubic_assistance]

24 minutes ago, samhexum said:

The Tennessee-based roadside restaurant chain deleted a dedicated “Pride page”

They had a Pride page ? 🤔 Weren't they giving money to anti-gay groups in the recent past ? When did the company start trying to appeal to gays ? 

[BuffaloKyle]

30 minutes ago, pubic_assistance said:

They had a Pride page ? 🤔 Weren't they giving money to anti-gay groups in the recent past ? When did the company start trying to appeal to gays ? 

Another logo that was considered:

[Simon Suraci]

1 hour ago, samhexum said:

Cracker Barrel quietly removes DEI and Pride pages from its website after logo upheaval

Yet another company kisses the ring. Cowards.

[pubic_assistance]

13 minutes ago, Simon Suraci said:

Yet another company kisses the ring. Cowards

No one's kissing any rings. Just appealing to their core customers.

Their investors thought they could take the company into a different demographic, but when you have more than 600 restaurants, you cant afford to piss off your existing customers while searching for new ones. 

 

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

Johnsons Tampa posted this potential new logo on its Facebook yesterday:

 

[Simon Suraci]

On 8/28/2025 at 9:44 PM, pubic_assistance said:

No one's kissing any rings. Just appealing to their core customers.

They are, by capitulating to said core customers’ bigotry, racism, sexism, anti LGBTQ+ values (note the B in there applies to you, @pubic_assistance), and blind fealty to those hell bent on throwing human rights and progress toward a more equitable and democratic society out the window.

This isn’t about graphic design or old timey aesthetics, but rather brand identity. Core customers identify with the brand; they feel it reflects who they are, and what they value. It’s not just a logo, but now a symbol of CB sticking to its history of devotion to old timey values. Old timey seems benign enough on the surface, but it’s not. Baked into CB’s historically held values are ideas that women shouldn’t vote, non white people exist to serve white people, and LGBTQ+ people shouldn’t exist at all, among many other horrible ideas. Now their core customers are regressing by embracing homogeneity, inequity, and exclusion. That’s what I mean with regard to CB quietly removing their DEI and Pride pages from their website.

Now more than ever, CB understands the coded message behind their old logo. It represents hate, intolerance, and now a fresh commitment to a movement that would force the other half of our nation to live in something akin to a post democracy Handmaid’s Tale. Showing deference to these core customers who identify with hateful messages is capitulation. So yes, figuratively CB is kissing the ring when the leader of said core customers is behaving like a dictator.

CB was trying to grow by expanding into new a market, appealing to different kinds of customers than their core base. By capitulating, CB is reaffirming that they are willing to forego attracting new customers in order to appease their existing ones. The existing core customer base wants to exclude others. The message is coded as follows:

“This is only a restaurant for X kind of people, and we (the existing core customer base of X people) don’t want Y kind of people eating here. By making a fuss, we want to pressure the company to embrace us (X people) at the emphatic EXCLUSION of Y people.”

In agreeing with the coded message, CB is reinforcing that their establishment is for people who fit the X criteria. It’s utter deference. The bully pulpit is very much on the side of X people. It’s ring kissing at the top as much as it is pandering to the bottom. Full spectrum capitulation.