Cracker Barrel Rebrand Is A Dog That Won’t Hunt

It was only two weeks ago that our epic Lisa told the story of how Bravolebrity Jenniefer Welch posited that Triple Trumpers (points to self) should shy away from ethnic restaurants and hie our fat asses to Cracker Barrel. Forfend, Jennifer. It’s almost like the Pinot Grigio Mean Girl hexed us. Uncle Herschel got kicked to the curb and the rest of the restaurant sign in a genuflection to our Corporate Overlords. In other words, that dog won’t hunt, just ask Uncle Herschel.

Robby Starbuck has gone after companies with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) goals, such as Harley Davidson, Tractor Supply and John Deere. Starbuck has been onto Cracker Barrel for a while. I knew about a lot of this, but the Pride Rocking Chairs. I just want my hashbrown casserole and biscuits with Sawmill Gravy. Robby explains all the corporatist thinking details here:

Cracker Barrel has been one of the most loved brands in America for decades… That changed this week with a logo redesign that infuriated the public but… the problem goes MUCH deeper than a logo.@CrackerBarrel has gone fully woke and now it’s time to expose everything.

Here’s… pic.twitter.com/lgkFd0wc2V

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) August 23, 2025

When a Company has gotten targeted by the Human Rights Campaign, in the past most companies have just caved, giving Robby Starbuck easy pickings:

Cracker Barrel over the past decade has worked closely with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), changing its company culture to be more inclusive and LGBT-friendly ahead of its controversial store rebrand.

The restaurant chain’s former management and training leader, Steve Smotherman, who spearheaded an LGBT employee resource group at Cracker Barrel, went on to sit on the HRC’s Business Advisory Council, Upward News reported.

“For more than ten years of my time at Cracker Barrel, I had an emphasis on Diversity & Inclusion, especially with LGBTQ workplace inclusion. My training background allowed me to understand the steps of adult learning, facilitate difficult conversations and be effective at it [sic] Diversity & Inclusion content,” Smotherman, who joined the company in 2005, wrote.

Cracker Barrel told Fox News Digital that it “has not participated in the Human Rights Campaign Index or had any affiliation with HRC in several years.”

Smotherman said at first he was reluctant to join Cracker Barrel due to it having a bad reputation with the gay community. In 1991, the chain instituted a corporate-wide policy stating that any employee who failed to demonstrate “normal heterosexual values” would be fired. After 11 employees were fired due to their sexual orientation, protests and boycotts were staged throughout the country.

After a few years with the restaurant, Smotherman founded an LGBT resource group that originally had six members. Over time, the group was successful at changing Cracker Barrel’s culture and making the “Old Country Store” more welcoming toward LGBT employees, Smotherman said. He left the company in 2020. The former Cracker Barrel employee would go on to sit on the HRC Business Advisory Council.

I want actors and singers to keep their politics to themselves and the people who grill my catfish to focus on perfecting my catfish.

In case you have been misled, a Cracker Barrel was the big barrel that held for real crackers. Nothing to do with Appalachian White Folk or Slavery.

Do they not understand that it’s called a Cracker Barrel because they literally stored crackers in barrels? They literally think the word cracker is a derogatory term for white people and that’s why there’s been a white guy on the logo for all these years? JFC. ‍

— Lady Di Got Something to Say (@IvGotSumthn2Say) August 22, 2025

The new logo is devoid. It is devoid of meaning and creativity. More on this from the Daily Wire:

Cracker Barrel, founded in 1969 by the late Dan Evins, came to symbolize American heritage. The original logo of an elderly gentleman sitting on a chair while leaning against a barrel epitomized that heritage. By removing the nostalgic imagery, the company seemingly put the final nail in the coffin of a treasured piece of Americana.

The elderly gentleman is the founder’s Uncle Herschel. More:

When current CEO Julie Felss Masino — who previously served as president of Mattel and Taco Bell — announced the logo change, she explained that her goal was to get Cracker Barrel out of people’s “rearview mirror” and to “make sure that it was something that really resonates with everybody of today and for tomorrow.” On paper, that may seem like a good idea, especially as the company is facing declining sales and trying to appeal to a younger demographic. In practice, it’s been an absolute disaster that has cost the company $200 million in market value.

It would be too easy to chalk up Cracker Barrel’s mistake as just another company gone woke. But the truth seems to be more complicated than that. As Andrew Beck, founding partner of brand consultancy Beck & Stone, said during an email interview with The Daily Wire, Masino’s flub was likely the result of heeding bad advice.

“She clearly values the brand and the customer’s feelings about it,” he said. “I do not think her insights are wrong—but I highly suspect the ‘outside help’ she describes as being brought in advised her team to turn left to ‘modern’ instead of right to ‘nostalgia’ at the fork in the road that every company must: what do we keep, what do we kick?”

I totally disagree with Mr. Beck. Julie Feiss Masion does not value the brand or the customer. She wants change for change’s sake. She wanted to make a name for herself. It was all about her. I have seen it before. All the new brand people want to make a name for themselves by wowing the “C Suite”.

To lead a brand to success, you have to understand and love the brand. Colonel Harlan Sanders sold KFC in 1964 and thought he was sidelined. According to Franchise Times:

“We hit rock bottom,” recalled Hochman of the situation at KFC 10 years ago, when it launched grilled chicken and a campaign of “Unthink what you thought about KFC.”

“It got so bad that our franchisees sued us,” he continued, in reference to a coalition of franchisees who in 2010 sued the chain, maintaining KFC spent too much time and money promoting Kentucky Grilled Chicken and ignored its core product, fried chicken. “We were at rock bottom.”

KFC was also grappling with shifting consumer preferences that moved away from bone-in chicken, plus changes to the nature of family mealtimes, with fewer families eating together at home, Hochman noted. “When your whole business is built on a bucket and as a meal replacement” that’s a problem.

The brand hired Karl Lieberman, the creative director who co-created “The Most Interesting Man In The World” campaign for Dos Equis, to help re-concept the Colonel. But before comedian Darrell Hammond debuted as Colonel Sanders in a TV spot in 2015, Hochman noted the chain first put its founder “front and center” in its store design, created new packaging, and “the last thing that we did” was the advertising campaign.

Back to basic. Back to what made people love you. That dog will hunt.

Featured Image: TaurusEmerald/Wikimedia Commons.org/cropped/Creative Commons 4.0

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