Cracker Barrel, the Tennessee-based restaurant chain known for its rustic Americana aesthetic, has reversed its decision to modernise its logo after an outcry from conservative figures, including former US president Donald Trump. The company announced on Tuesday that it would revert to its original branding, featuring the character known as Uncle Herschel, following criticism that the rebrand was an attack on tradition.
The controversy began when Cracker Barrel unveiled a sleek new logo as part of an effort to attract younger customers. The change drew sharp rebukes from Donald Trump Jr, who wrote on social media: “WTF is wrong with Cracker Barrel?!” His father later suggested the company should “admit a mistake”. The reversal came after the backlash wiped almost $100m off the company’s value, with shares recovering 8% on Wednesday after the decision.
Marketing experts say the strong reaction stems from Cracker Barrel’s place in American culture. Neeraj Bharadwaj, professor of marketing at the University of Tennessee, described the chain as “an institution”, while Jarvis Sam, a professor at Brown University and UC Berkeley, noted that its imagery evokes a nostalgic past that is not universally shared. “It has this stylised or idealised representation of what many would define as the ‘good old days’,” he said, adding that for others it romanticises a time of inequality and exclusion.
Sam suggested the episode has become “a proxy for the larger culture war” over who owns the American story. He called the political reaction “at best, political theatre”, with leaders using a minor corporate change to stoke fears about “woke culture”. Cracker Barrel itself has a contentious history: in 1991 it fired 11 LGBTQ+ workers after declaring that employees must demonstrate “normal heterosexual values”, and in 2004 it paid $8.7m to settle claims of racist treatment of Black customers and discrimination against Black workers.
Despite the company’s statement that it “could have done a better job sharing who we are”, a YouGov poll found 76% of respondents preferred the old logo. Sam argued the episode suggests the company’s market research excluded many of its own customers. “Whatever market research they did, did not include the majority of their consumers,” he said.
