![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-19-the-triumph-of-old-timey-1-v2.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nOn Aug. 19, Cracker Barrel unveiled a logo rebrand that shook the internet. The new logo removed the image of long-time ambassador Uncle Herschel on his rocking chair and replaced it with a simple image of the words “Cracker Barrel” over a yellow background in the vague shape of a barrel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rebrand was a betrayal of Cracker Barrel’s values. The “old timey” feeling of Cracker Barrel was lost by reducing the logo to something you might see from any corporate restaurant. From a marketing standpoint, being old fashioned is Cracker Barrel’s differentiating point \u2013 it’s what sets it apart from its competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fans were quick to express their outrage. After receiving wide-spread negative criticism, including a Truth Social post from President Trump, and a market value loss of $140 million, the company took to their website to retract their new logo. They stated their appreciation for customers’ devotion to the original Cracker Barrel brand and said that the “old timer [logo] will remain.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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,” the company wrote in a statement released on Aug. 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decision to change the logo was part of a broader effort to overturn declining revenue. The company has been facing losses for the past couple of years, so the rebrand may have seemed like the right move to increase traffic into the restaurant. Obviously, it was not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While sometimes it is a necessity for a company to rebrand, this was not the case for Cracker Barrel. The company may have felt like their logo was old-fashioned and in need of revamp, but they were on thin ice because “old timey” is part of their core identity. To remove what is old-fashioned is to remove everything Cracker Barrel stands for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As someone who works at Bob Evans, a restaurant with a similar style to Cracker Barrel, I know the Cracker Barrel clientele. They come to Cracker Barrel expecting the same thing every time \u2013 hence why it’s called comfort food. By changing the logo and removing the core brand identity, customers feel like they’re losing the nostalgic restaurant they know and love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A straw poll by USA Today Florida found that 90% of respondents disapproved of the logo rebrand, while 6% were indifferent and 4% loved it. Clearly, Cracker Barrel did not do sufficient research on what customers wanted before launching their rebrand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Julie Felss Masino, the current CEO and mastermind behind Cracker Barrel’s big moves, was hired in 2023 to help the company recover from the past couple years’ losses; however, in this case, she has contributed to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The logo rebrand is not Masino’s only move for Cracker Barrel. She also organized the remodeling of the seating and lighting inside the restaurants and updated some menu items. All these things were working to raise customer positivity \u2013 it was only when she tried to change the identity of the restaurant that she began to stumble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Masino should have stuck to the path of improving the restaurant experience rather than attempting to change the fundamentals of the brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since retracting the new logo, Cracker Barrel’s stocks have started to rise even higher than they were before the disastrous logo launch. Cracker Barrel would be even more successful at bringing sales up if they focused on customer concerns instead of pursuing modern rebrands no one asked for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cracker Barrel’s controversial logo change emphasizes the value of tradition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[158,29,26],"class_list":["post-933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions","tag-abby-bonaquist","tag-perspectives","tag-issue-2025-09-05"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-19-the-triumph-of-old-timey-1-v2.jpg",914,293,false],"thumbnail":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-19-the-triumph-of-old-timey-1-v2.jpg",150,48,false],"medium":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-19-the-triumph-of-old-timey-1-v2.jpg",300,96,false],"medium_large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-19-the-triumph-of-old-timey-1-v2.jpg",768,246,false],"large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-19-the-triumph-of-old-timey-1-v2.jpg",914,293,false],"1536x1536":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-19-the-triumph-of-old-timey-1-v2.jpg",914,293,false],"2048x2048":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-19-the-triumph-of-old-timey-1-v2.jpg",914,293,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Cracker Barrel's controversial logo change emphasizes the value of tradition","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2238,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions\/2238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}