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I hope they go Full Cracker Barrel on this: 1. Original logo has country charm and soul. 2. Replaced with a modern soulless logo. 3. Customer outrage! 4. Co

I hope they go Full Cracker Barrel on this: 1. Original logo has country charm and soul. 2. Replaced with a modern soulless logo. 3. Customer outrage! 4. Company (or open source project) comes to its senses and returns to old logo. https://media.nbcboston.com/2025/08/cracker-barrel-split.jpg https://media.nbcboston.com/2025/08/cracker-barrel-split.jpg (n.b. The Cracker Barrel Rebellion is sometimes associated with MAGA. I am very far from that, but I have to respect when people of any political stripe get something right.)

UltraSane 1y ago
The Cracker Barrel "controversy" seems to have largely been fueled by bots.
- eatkd 1y ago
  Any source for that?
  - toomuchtodo 1y ago
    https://www.nrn.com/casual-dining/cracker-barrel-s-logo-controversy-was-driven-by-bots-what-operators-should-learn-from-this https://www.nrn.com/casual-dining/cracker-barrel-s-logo-cont... https://www.wsj.com/articles/bot-networks-are-helping-drag-consumer-brands-into-the-culture-wars-63dffa04 https://www.wsj.com/articles/bot-networks-are-helping-drag-c...
    - hajile 1y ago
      Did anyone short Cracker Barrel stock? If not, I have a hard time seeing why bots would have any interest in investing the time/money. There also didn't seem to be any political clout being gained by the complaints. More real-world is that I know tons of friends/relatives in the South and I don't know of even ONE that liked the redesign.
      - pstuart 1y ago
        Rage baiting has value to certain groups.
      - dhosek 1y ago
        I recall reading somewhere about some investor who wanted to take control of cb who drove this, so less shorting and more opportunistic drive down the price to buy more shares at a lower price.
        joshkel 1y ago
        Yes. Sardar Biglari, who's an activist investor and the CEO and owner of Steak'n'Shake, has been pushing for more control over Cracker Barrel for several years. He amplified some of the backlash against Cracker Barrel. https://fortune.com/2025/09/18/sardar-biglari-war-against-cracker-barrel/ https://fortune.com/2025/09/18/sardar-biglari-war-against-cr...
      - UltraSane 1y ago
        Russia has gotten VERY good at amplifying any cultural differences or controversies in order to break US politics (and many other countries). If you hadn't noticed it has been VERY effective.
        MomsAVoxell 1y ago
        If you haven't noticed, there is no evidence of your claims.
        UltraSane 1y ago
        You just have to read Reddit and YouTube and Twitter comments to see all the evidence you need.
        mh- 1y ago
        Curious that you didn't include HN in that list.
    - forgotoldacc 1y ago
      The vast majority of Twitter posts are by bots, so 44.5% seems like a higher proportion of humans than usual. The Cracker Barrel thing was a hot topic amongst people I know for a good 48 hours. It's more interesting to me how, without fail, a comment always pops in at the mention of Cracker Barrel to say "those were bots, fellow human."
      - bmicraft 1y ago
        If the "fueled by bots" comment wasn't here already I'd have written it.
    - mh- 1y ago
      > According to research obtained by the Wall Street Journal from PeakMetrics, 44.5% of X posts about Cracker Barrel on Aug. 20 (when the new logo began to go viral), were posted by “bots or likely bots,” rising to 49% at the peak of the controversy. I wonder how much this differs from the percentage for any trending topic on X?
- MarcelOlsz 1y ago
  Or the President.
swyx 1y ago
ah, the New Coke Gambit
- acomjean 1y ago
  Ah New Coke… Oddly I liked new coke better. My most 80s possession is a new coke can with max headroom on it. They had both new and “classic” for a while co existing.
  - jkaplowitz 1y ago
    > Oddly I liked new coke better. Fun fact: so did most focus groups and (I think?) blind taste tests when it was just presented as a new drink, but they tended to be horrified by the idea of it actually replacing classic Coke. The problem with that switch was mostly psychological / cultural, not chemical. Also, Diet Coke, which remains quite popular, is still based on the New Coke formula except with the sweetener swapped out. The no-calorie version of classic Coke is Coke Zero. The Coca-Cola Company has been working to increase Coke Zero's popularity, and it is now much more popular than it used to be, but I think Diet Coke continues to be more popular than Coke Zero even now.
    - cyphar 1y ago
      > The Coca-Cola Company has been working to increase Coke Zero's popularity, and it is now much more popular than it used to be, but I think Diet Coke continues to be more popular than Coke Zero even now. This might be a per-country thing -- Coke Zero has always been more popular in Australia ever since it came out (it can be hard to find Diet Coke in vending machines and for single-bottle sales here). Of course, Coke (and Pepsi) can taste different in different countries but I would say the Aussie one tastes pretty similar to the American one.
  - thymehog 1y ago
    ahhh, Max Headroom. Classic memory reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_signal_hijacking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_signal_hijacking
b00ty4breakfast 1y ago
the funny thing about the Cracker Barrel brouhaha is that the new one still looked like something you'd find on a pack of matches from a hotel bar in the 70s.
- janc_ 1y ago
  It looked like Cracker Barrel's own logo in the 1960s/1970 IIRC.

UltraSane 1y ago

The Cracker Barrel "controversy" seems to have largely been fueled by bots.

eatkd 1y ago
Any source for that?
- toomuchtodo 1y ago
  https://www.nrn.com/casual-dining/cracker-barrel-s-logo-controversy-was-driven-by-bots-what-operators-should-learn-from-this https://www.nrn.com/casual-dining/cracker-barrel-s-logo-cont... https://www.wsj.com/articles/bot-networks-are-helping-drag-consumer-brands-into-the-culture-wars-63dffa04 https://www.wsj.com/articles/bot-networks-are-helping-drag-c...
  - hajile 1y ago
    Did anyone short Cracker Barrel stock? If not, I have a hard time seeing why bots would have any interest in investing the time/money. There also didn't seem to be any political clout being gained by the complaints. More real-world is that I know tons of friends/relatives in the South and I don't know of even ONE that liked the redesign.
    - pstuart 1y ago
      Rage baiting has value to certain groups.
    - dhosek 1y ago
      I recall reading somewhere about some investor who wanted to take control of cb who drove this, so less shorting and more opportunistic drive down the price to buy more shares at a lower price.
      - joshkel 1y ago
        Yes. Sardar Biglari, who's an activist investor and the CEO and owner of Steak'n'Shake, has been pushing for more control over Cracker Barrel for several years. He amplified some of the backlash against Cracker Barrel. https://fortune.com/2025/09/18/sardar-biglari-war-against-cracker-barrel/ https://fortune.com/2025/09/18/sardar-biglari-war-against-cr...
    - UltraSane 1y ago
      Russia has gotten VERY good at amplifying any cultural differences or controversies in order to break US politics (and many other countries). If you hadn't noticed it has been VERY effective.
      - MomsAVoxell 1y ago
        If you haven't noticed, there is no evidence of your claims.
        UltraSane 1y ago
        You just have to read Reddit and YouTube and Twitter comments to see all the evidence you need.
        mh- 1y ago
        Curious that you didn't include HN in that list.
  - forgotoldacc 1y ago
    The vast majority of Twitter posts are by bots, so 44.5% seems like a higher proportion of humans than usual. The Cracker Barrel thing was a hot topic amongst people I know for a good 48 hours. It's more interesting to me how, without fail, a comment always pops in at the mention of Cracker Barrel to say "those were bots, fellow human."
    - bmicraft 1y ago
      If the "fueled by bots" comment wasn't here already I'd have written it.
  - mh- 1y ago
    > According to research obtained by the Wall Street Journal from PeakMetrics, 44.5% of X posts about Cracker Barrel on Aug. 20 (when the new logo began to go viral), were posted by “bots or likely bots,” rising to 49% at the peak of the controversy. I wonder how much this differs from the percentage for any trending topic on X?
MarcelOlsz 1y ago
Or the President.

swyx 1y ago

ah, the New Coke Gambit

acomjean 1y ago
Ah New Coke… Oddly I liked new coke better. My most 80s possession is a new coke can with max headroom on it. They had both new and “classic” for a while co existing.
- jkaplowitz 1y ago
  > Oddly I liked new coke better. Fun fact: so did most focus groups and (I think?) blind taste tests when it was just presented as a new drink, but they tended to be horrified by the idea of it actually replacing classic Coke. The problem with that switch was mostly psychological / cultural, not chemical. Also, Diet Coke, which remains quite popular, is still based on the New Coke formula except with the sweetener swapped out. The no-calorie version of classic Coke is Coke Zero. The Coca-Cola Company has been working to increase Coke Zero's popularity, and it is now much more popular than it used to be, but I think Diet Coke continues to be more popular than Coke Zero even now.
  - cyphar 1y ago
    > The Coca-Cola Company has been working to increase Coke Zero's popularity, and it is now much more popular than it used to be, but I think Diet Coke continues to be more popular than Coke Zero even now. This might be a per-country thing -- Coke Zero has always been more popular in Australia ever since it came out (it can be hard to find Diet Coke in vending machines and for single-bottle sales here). Of course, Coke (and Pepsi) can taste different in different countries but I would say the Aussie one tastes pretty similar to the American one.
- thymehog 1y ago
  ahhh, Max Headroom. Classic memory reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_signal_hijacking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_signal_hijacking

b00ty4breakfast 1y ago

the funny thing about the Cracker Barrel brouhaha is that the new one still looked like something you'd find on a pack of matches from a hotel bar in the 70s.

janc_ 1y ago
It looked like Cracker Barrel's own logo in the 1960s/1970 IIRC.