Cracker Barrel, the largely Southern food chain with more than 650 locations and 70,000 employees, caused an uproar last week when it changed its logo. While many consumers were quick to blame DEI, the backlash may reflect the polarization of the country, according to one expert.
How it started. You may be familiar with the old Cracker Barrel logo, which featured an older gentleman leaning against a barrel.
Enter, new branding, released on Aug. 18, in conjunction with the company’s “All the More” campaign with country star Jordan Davis.
No barrel. No man. Just “Cracker Barrel” in a bland font against the same gold background. The restaurants are getting a new look, too: grey walls that are more “sad millennial home” than “old-school country kitchen,” with more modern furniture and lighting. But Cracker Barrel promised to keep “the soul” of its restaurants, including the stone fireplaces, taxidermy deer heads, and rocking chairs.
Cracker Barrel announced these changes last year as part of an effort to modernize and appeal to younger consumers as growth had largely stalled after 55 years in business.
Unfortunately, consumers were not happy, to say the least. People on the political right, including Donald Trump Jr., Ben Shapiro, and comedian Larry the Cable Guy, claimed the new logo was “woke” and a result of DEI. Others said it was boring and disconnected from Cracker Barrel’s Southern roots.
The online commentary soon led to real-world consequences: Cracker Barrel’s stock quickly plunged, losing almost $100 million in market value in less than a week, CBS News reported.
Why blame DEI? Conservative activist Robby Starbuck in part blamed Gilbert Dávila, a member of Cracker Barrel’s board of directors. Dávila, who joined the board in 2020 and spent more than 15 years working in multicultural marketing at the Walt Disney Company and Sears, owns a DEI consulting business.
Others blamed the changes on the company’s CEO, Julie Felss Masino, and her “DEI regime.” Masino took over in 2023, and although her politics are unclear, she’s not new to the industry, previously spending time in leadership at Taco Bell, Sprinkles Cupcakes, and Starbucks.
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Even before the rebrand, Cracker Barrel had been under fire from anti-DEI talking heads, after America First Legal, a conservative group founded by Stephen Miller, filed an EEOC complaint earlier this summer over the company’s DEI policies.
Lily Zheng, an organizational fairness consultant, told HR Brew that the Cracker Barrel situation isn’t really about DEI, but rather another example of the “us against them” mentality dividing the nation. “Every single thing that happens, be it small or large in popular culture, is now being jumped upon as a tool of political polarization to pick sides,” they said.
For DEI leaders feeling even more pressure as yet another brand unintentionally enters the political fray, Zheng had this to say: “You stay focused on exactly what you’re doing for a living, and communicate like your profession depends on it, which it does,” noting that DEI leaders must know how to defend their work. “Ensuring fair hiring practices; ensuring non-discrimination. I can defend those things every single day of the week to anyone who accuses me of stuff.”
“This kind of idea that some cabal of DEI people are running around out here woke-a-fying logos is…completely disconnected from reality,” Zheng added.
Cracker Barrel responded to the backlash on Aug. 25, admitting it may have missed the mark. While the company initially stuck by the logo change, it backtracked on Aug. 26, shortly after President Trump weighed in, Yahoo reported. “We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our 'Old Timer' will remain,” a new statement read, prompting praise from the president and a jump in Cracker Barrel’s stock.