Target, just a few years ago, went totally woke by promoting LGBT, specifically transgender, products in its stores. Its stock fell, stores faced headwinds staying open and even now it’s busy replacing its CEO.
And don’t forget Bud Light, which partnered with a man who says he’s a woman, and its popularity collapsed like a really bad souffle, and never has recovered.
Now it’s Cracker Barrel restaurants, with a new “wokey-type” CEO, that is turning itself inside out, and gets a 7% stock plunge in just a day, or a collapse of $100 million.
A report at CBS said the company “shed almost $100 million in market value after its stock plunged … following the release of a new logo.”
It now says “Cracker Barrel,” after eliminating the “drawing of an overall-clad man leaning against a barrel, in favor of a cleaner logo featuring just the chain’s name.”
The slide appeared to halt on Friday.
The company has been working to change itself around.
The report noted, “It’s unusual for a company’s share price to plunge dramatically due to a logo redesign, although marketing missteps can cause investors to question a company’ strategy. Cracker Barrel’s overhaul has been overseen by CEO Julie Felss Masino, who last year described the chain as ‘not as relevant as we once were,’ and announced plans to update its down-home menu.”
The company claimed, “Our values haven’t changed, and the heart and soul of Cracker Barrel haven’t changed.”
But marketing experts have criticized the company’s overhaul and many charged the company with going “woke.”
And Bolt Health founder Kevin Dahlstrom, who has been marketing chief in several companies, said the rebrand is a “fiasco.”
“The holy grail of marketing is to create a brand that customers give a damn about — and feel some ownership of. It’s exceedingly rare and when you have that — as Cracker Barrel did — you NEVER EVER abandon it, you only double down on it,” Dahlstrom wrote.
The company soared in the 1990s and its stock reached $180 in 2018. More recently, it has traded in the $55 range and its revenue has been growing by small numbers.
JUST IN: Cracker Barrel stock nosedives over 14% after they unveiled their new bland logo.
The company decided to ditch its iconic logo as part of its new rebrand, prompting harsh backlash, but CEO Julie Felss Masino is convinced people love the changes.
The company is also… pic.twitter.com/V5eJDJhSJ9
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 21, 2025
LOL! “Honestly, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.” – Cracker Barrel CEO.
Do they all lie?
pic.twitter.com/PPlFMH6mA4— Gunther Eagleman
(@GuntherEagleman) August 21, 2025
— Business Tactical (@Bacon_Is_King) August 21, 2025
David Marcus, in a commentary said the company was abandoning customers and trading “authenticity for corporate slop.”
“Few things in American life have felt as trapped in the amber of history as Cracker Barrel restaurants, with their recipe of comfort food served up in cozy confines that evoke a bygone era. It’s little wonder Americans routinely wait for an hour to get a table after church, or welcome a road-trip diversion when they see the classic logo on a highway sign,” he said. “Now, the cracker-jack whiz-kid marketing team at the iconic eatery’s corprate headquarters has decided to forgo all of this, including possibly, based on public reaction to their changes, the long lines.”
He explained, “This may not exactly be wokeness at work, as we have seen with so many brands such as Target and Bud Light, but it is something similarly lifeless and cold.”
“One thing we can say is that this cold, corporate signage represents truth in advertising when you see what the wunderkinds in the Cracker Barrel C suite have in mind for the interior of the once-charming restaurants. Instead of feeling like an old-timey cottage, the new design has white walls, bright lights, modern decor and, all in all, looks more like a place for ladies who lunch than families or truck drivers. This is why the shake-up at Cracker Barrel feels like wokeness. It feels like this very authentic place is being turned into a cookie-cutter version of every other chain restaurant. And what is wokeness ultimately, but a demand for uniformity?”
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Author: Bob Unruh
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