Cracker Barrel: the utter, utter stupidity of it all
I wouldn't usually write about something like this, but I'm concerned about what it says about "where we're going"...
Forgive the very simple language and syntax I will use in this post, but it’s what the subject needs.
Like one of those conversations you have about something SO ridiculous, that you feel the need to slow-down-and-spell-it-out-for-the-other-person-like-they-are-five-years-old.
<clears throat>
This is the logo for Cracker Barrel, a chain of Southern country-style restaurants in the United States:
On August 19, the company announced it was changing the logo to this…
… and for some reason, ‘The Internet’ lost its shit.
Some thought the new logo was too plain. Some just didn’t like it. Some missed the old man leaning on the barrel… (his name is Uncle Herschel, apparently.)
But a loud and vocal portion of ‘The Internet’ decided that the REAL problem with Cracker Barrel’s new logo was that it was… woke.
Because truly, nothing says woke like a brown font on a yellow background:
And as news of this woke abomination spread, Cracker Barrel’s stock price took a hammering - falling 13.99% in just around two hours:
Initially, Cracker Barrel stood firm - the new logo was staying, but the company had definitely heard the criticism:
If the last few days have shown us anything, it's how deeply people care about Cracker Barrel. We're truly grateful for your heartfelt voices.
You've also shown us that we could've done a better job sharing who we are and who we'll always be.
But then a few days later, Donald Trump entered the debate.
Because besides the war in Ukraine, famine in Gaza, global tariffs, the National Guard on the streets of Washington DC, etc etc etc… this was, of course, something which required the attention of the President of the United States of America:
Around eight hours later, Cracker Barrel made an announcement - it was going back to the old logo…
… and the stock price, which had been clawing back its losses, got a nice little bump off the back of the announcement:
So was it another example of an American corporation caving in to the ‘demands’ of Donald Trump?
Personally, I don’t think so. There were more than enough ‘ordinary Americans’ who wanted the old logo back, and the negative publicity was doing the company no good.
But by turning it into a so-called woke issue, right-wing America made sure that a very simple corporate logo change suddenly became a nationwide debate.
It was just so STUPID.
And as Forrest Gump taught us all those years ago… stupid is as stupid does:
For me, as an increasingly grumpy Gen Xer, this is just another classic example of Everything That Is Wrong With The World At The Moment.
Something as benign as a logo change gets amplified into something it isn’t by attention-seekers on social media… it then gets picked up by influential and high-profile people (right up to the U.S. President)… and then, when the logo is changed back, they take credit for it and turn it into another social media circus.
Those two screenshots above are from THE WHITE HOUSE and the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY.
Clearly DOGE ( remember the Department of Government Efficiency?) didn’t get around to the administration’s social media teams, who seem to think going after clicks about a restaurant’s logo is a good way to spend taxpayer time and money.
And that’s without even mentioning the media coverage which ‘legitimised’ the story as something worthwhile and in-need-of-reporting.
And you know, maybe I’m just making it worse by getting wound up by something as ultimately insignificant as the Cracker Barrel logo. Honestly, I’d never even heard of Cracker Barrel before.
But these kinds of stupid things are happening every day.
And every day, I can’t help but feel it’s a sign of just how messed up ‘we’ all are in 2025 - as a people, and a planet.
<sigh>