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National Review staff writer Caroline Downey urged MAGA to pump the brakes on their over-the-top outrage over Southern-themed restaurant chain Cracker Barrel’s changing its logo, telling her fellow conservatives that they need to stop labeling everything they don’t like as “woke.”
Downey’s warning to Trump supporters came as prominent Republicans and right-wing media figures called for a boycott of Cracker Barrel amid its “woke rebrand,” with Rep. Byron Donalds going so far as to claim he “gave my life to Christ in their parking lot” while saying it’s “time to Make Cracker Barrel Great Again.”
Following years of declining revenues and dropping stock prices, Cracker Barrel announced this week that it was going through a brand refresh, which included switching its iconic logo – which featured a man in overalls leaning against a barrel – to a more minimalist one. Instead, the new design simply has the name of the restaurant inside a gold-colored, barrel-shaped background.
“Our values haven't changed, and the heart and soul of Cracker Barrel haven’t changed. And Uncle Herschel remains front and center in our restaurants and on our menu,” the company said of its new logo.
On top of that, the company’s restaurants will be going through a remodel, which will offer customers a “brighter, lighter” experience and “less cluttered” spaces while still keeping some “fan favorites,” according to Cracker Barrel’s chief marketing officer Sarah Moore. Several of the restaurants have already undergone the transformation that replaces nostalgia with modernism.
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National Review columnist Caroline Downey called for MAGA world to quit abusing the term ‘woke’ amid the Cracker Barrel backlash, adding that it's ‘losing its meaning.’(CNN)
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The backlash, especially within MAGA world, was swift and loud – with many comparing the sterile corporate makeover to Bud Light’s brief 2023 advertising partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which sparked a right-wing boycott of the beer.
“[W]e must break the Barrel,” conservative activist Chris Rufo declared Thursday. “It’s not about this particular restaurant chain – who cares – but about creating massive pressure against companies that are considering any move that might appear to be ‘wokification.’ The implicit promise: Go woke, watch your stock price drop 20 percent, which is exactly what is happening now.”
At one point Thursday, share prices in Cracker Barrel plunged 15 percent, though the stock rebounded a bit before the markets closed – leaving the company down about 7 percent for the day.
During Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s panel show NewsNight, anchor Abby Phillip aired a clip of MAGA influencer Benny Johnson ranting about the Cracker Barrel redesign, which featured him claiming “white people are about to right” because “they erased the white guy” from the logo.
“It‘s getting sticky because the CEO of Cracker Barrel is as woke as they come. She is destroying a great American brand,” Johnson added, referencing the chief executive’s past support for DEI initiatives.
“I don’t know if this is satire or what,” Phillip said about Johnson's tirade. Later, after noting that Cracker Barrel has been dealing with declining business in recent years, the anchor brought up Donald’s criticism of the “woke rebrand” before turning to Downey.
“Not everything is woke,” Downey remarked. “I think we’re abusing the term a little bit too much, where it’s losing its meaning, and that’s really important because some things actually are woke and we should call it like it is.”
The National Review columnist, who penned an article last month titled “The American Eagle Ad Is Not That Deep,” went on to state that all appearances suggested that Cracker Barrel was merely trying to reboot a stagnant business – even if it was poorly executed.
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Cracker Barrel has come under fire from MAGA politicians and influencers over its “woke rebrand.”(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“However, in this case, from a marketing perspective, if revenues are declining you gotta switch it up, you gotta implement a new strategy,” Downey stated. “But who at that roundtable was thinking to themself, ‘Ah yes, let’s go back to the minimalism of five years ago that is sterile and bland and neutered, and let’s rob this iconic, timeless company of all of its character and charm and fun history and country vibes.’ That’s not super smart. Maximalism is the moment.”
While the Trump administration is now raging that the Smithsonian is “woke” because the museums teach “how bad slavery was,” leading to a review of the institution’s exhibits, conservatives have been tripping over themselves to use that term to deride anything that seemingly doesn’t fit within the MAGA viewpoint.
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For instance, even before the latest Superman reboot was released to theaters last month, several Fox News pundits and hosts complained that it was “superwoke” because director James Gunn had said the film explored “pro-immigrant themes” and centered on “human kindness.”
“He’s creating a moat of woke, enlightened opinion around him. He’s got a woke shield,” Greg Gutfeld grumbled at the time.