MEGA MAGA

[cfbandyman]

Like I legit don't get the cracker barrel thing. Companies oversimplify their logos all the time.

[nicname]

Like I legit don't get the cracker barrel thing. Companies oversimplify their logos all the time.

Misdirected hostility

[Trim]

 

[Tobias]

if they come for Cracker Belt's #branding, i'm rioting

[CNS]

If they changed their logo to a rolled up whip, they could become the official restaurant of MAGA.

[michigancat]

Like I legit don't get the cracker barrel thing. Companies oversimplify their logos all the time.

I mean with Bud Light and Target I could understand where people were coming from even if I thought it was ridiculous. I have absolutely no idea how the Cracker Barrel logo is part of a culture war.

[star seed 7]

Like I legit don't get the cracker barrel thing. Companies oversimplify their logos all the time.

I mean with Bud Light and Target I could understand where people were coming from even if I thought it was ridiculous. I have absolutely no idea how the Cracker Barrel logo is part of a culture war.

I saw a post on texags saying something about how people are sick of corporations erasing white culture.

[Brock Landers]

Like I legit don't get the cracker barrel thing. Companies oversimplify their logos all the time.

It is weird for sure.  Like most normal people I saw the new logo and thought "Man, that's not a good logo redesign" and moved on with my life in approximately 2 seconds.

[star seed 7]

KRusty, I think this is the actual best explanation of why this is woke or even political at all. Just a post from the Texas board.

I look at this differently: I think that there genuinely is a deepening pushback against the depressing and sloppy beigification of everything. I think that people actually didn’t like the half-assed rework of a piece of familiar, iconic, and harmless Americana (even if attached to a mediocre chain restaurant) into appified slop.
 

But, I do think it’s a reflection of a dangerous political moment in this way: the people who don’t like it are unable to express why they don’t like it outside of political wars. Any point of disagreement or dissatisfaction is reduced to an argument over woke/anti-woke in the same way any and all preferences in the Soviet Union were framed as to whether they were revolutionary or reactionary.

And this works the other way, too. Because it’s been politicized, people have the knee-jerk reaction of either defending what is truly a shitty rebrand or saying that no one should care even though caring about trivial aesthetic and marketing crap has a long non-politicized proud tradition (see uniform pron thread).

It should be simple and non-political to  say the obvious: The Cracker Barrel rebrand sucks. It’s boring and bland and makes our shared human-shaped geography just a little bit more soulless and less fun in an era when soul and fun is in short supply. It’s borne of conformist and soggy marketing brain that thinks making the physical world more like a smartphone screen is good design.
 

The fact that we as a society can’t find the way to say this without reference to hyper-partisan framing  is further evidence of creeping totalitarianism in the sense that almost no opinions can be voiced or conversations held outside politics. It’s a hallmark of decaying democracies and hyper-ideological dictatorships.

[Trim]

CBACO

[Cartierfor3]

I don't think I've been to a cracker barrel in this century.

[michigancat]

KRusty, I think this is the actual best explanation of why this is woke or even political at all. Just a post from the Texas board.

I look at this differently: I think that there genuinely is a deepening pushback against the depressing and sloppy beigification of everything. I think that people actually didn’t like the half-assed rework of a piece of familiar, iconic, and harmless Americana (even if attached to a mediocre chain restaurant) into appified slop.
 

But, I do think it’s a reflection of a dangerous political moment in this way: the people who don’t like it are unable to express why they don’t like it outside of political wars. Any point of disagreement or dissatisfaction is reduced to an argument over woke/anti-woke in the same way any and all preferences in the Soviet Union were framed as to whether they were revolutionary or reactionary.

And this works the other way, too. Because it’s been politicized, people have the knee-jerk reaction of either defending what is truly a shitty rebrand or saying that no one should care even though caring about trivial aesthetic and marketing crap has a long non-politicized proud tradition (see uniform pron thread).

It should be simple and non-political to  say the obvious: The Cracker Barrel rebrand sucks. It’s boring and bland and makes our shared human-shaped geography just a little bit more soulless and less fun in an era when soul and fun is in short supply. It’s borne of conformist and soggy marketing brain that thinks making the physical world more like a smartphone screen is good design.
 

The fact that we as a society can’t find the way to say this without reference to hyper-partisan framing  is further evidence of creeping totalitarianism in the sense that almost no opinions can be voiced or conversations held outside politics. It’s a hallmark of decaying democracies and hyper-ideological dictatorships.

That's a pretty good explanation, but again I think that applies to Dylan Mulvaney getting a special Bud Light can or Target pride shirts but not the soulless logo redesign. I haven't seen anyone say it was good. Maybe I'm just not in the circles where the logo was defended in any way. I guess you could argue my apathy/dumbfoundedness is a political stance but I don't think it's an opposite equivalent to the reaction the right is having.

[star seed 7]

I think also in this case the right wing grift machine saw a stereotypical "girl boss" ceo and manufactured an agenda for clicks and a good number of people just took that at face value and connected the "souless" anger to wokeness (see dax). Everyone else is confused as to how it's woke but their first exposure to the rebrand is still through a political lens. 10 years ago everyone just clowns on the move as a business decision and cracker barrel probably redecides. Now the reversal is a political win.

[bucket]

Many DEI hire mentions.

Plus throw in insane, thought leaders like this.

[wetwillie]

It's probably going to cost them more to roll back their rebrand than they lost in market share.

[star seed 7]

All this could really be a different thread but I've also been thinking lately about how deeply the right cares about the brands they support and how betrayed they feel when a brand tries to expand their demographics. I've seen many comments about cracker barrel abandoning conservatives for perceived "better" liberal customers.

I think just by nature people on the left at least support the idea of inclusion so these sorts of things just don't show up on the radar. I thought of a liberal parallel earlier but I can't remember it right now.

[Rage Against the McKee]

I don't think I've been to a cracker barrel in this century.

I don't go to any of the chain restaurants unless someone I'm with just really wants to go.

[mocat]

there really is no reason or excuse to go to a chain restaurant.

[catastrophe]

there really is no reason or excuse to go to a chain restaurant.

Other than convenience, price, reliability of product and preparation…

[michigancat]

All this could really be a different thread but I've also been thinking lately about how deeply the right cares about the brands they support and how betrayed they feel when a brand tries to expand their demographics. I've seen many comments about cracker barrel abandoning conservatives for perceived "better" liberal customers.

I think just by nature people on the left at least support the idea of inclusion so these sorts of things just don't show up on the radar. I thought of a liberal parallel earlier but I can't remember it right now.

Yeah I think it started with the logo which led to a focus on DEI at a "conservative" company. This is painful to watch but this guy seems to have really fired up the right about it:

https://x.com/robbystarbuck/status/1959097759350378743?t=8CmFSAncrOPkvyTth3_EhA&s=19

Chris Rufo touched on the "betrayal" a bit:

https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1960481353268695263?t=qEn3feSYhXhr14q_bdcegQ&s=19

https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1960481700150235182?t=QeF0GPaAFvTqTq-gSgLlyQ&s=19

And that leads to word policing like this

https://x.com/America1stLegal/status/1960504303233159484?t=zGZ85lApKJMI8HMtYTnr8A&s=19

Crazy! But I think I understand it a little more now

[catastrophe]

I think also in this case the right wing grift machine saw a stereotypical "girl boss" ceo and manufactured an agenda for clicks and a good number of people just took that at face value and connected the "souless" anger to wokeness (see dax). Everyone else is confused as to how it's woke but their first exposure to the rebrand is still through a political lens. 10 years ago everyone just clowns on the move as a business decision and cracker barrel probably redecides. Now the reversal is a political win.

I think there’s a lot to this. There are plenty of dog whistlers waiting for any mistake (or perceived mistake) by a non-white or non-male leader to try and score their culture war points.

[wetwillie]

there really is no reason or excuse to go to a chain restaurant.

KK is rolling over in his grave with this assault on the 7 day challenge

[cfbandyman]

Like I legit don't get the cracker barrel thing. Companies oversimplify their logos all the time.

I mean with Bud Light and Target I could understand where people were coming from even if I thought it was ridiculous. I have absolutely no idea how the Cracker Barrel logo is part of a culture war.

Right, that is really overall where I am at. I also overall do not think "wokeness" (which at this point is to me devoid of meaning, it's just anything anyone on the right doesn't like, up to including something they like 30 seconds ago) even crossed the corporate heads minds when they did this rebranding.

KRusty, I think this is the actual best explanation of why this is woke or even political at all. Just a post from the Texas board.

I look at this differently: I think that there genuinely is a deepening pushback against the depressing and sloppy beigification of everything. I think that people actually didn’t like the half-assed rework of a piece of familiar, iconic, and harmless Americana (even if attached to a mediocre chain restaurant) into appified slop.
 

But, I do think it’s a reflection of a dangerous political moment in this way: the people who don’t like it are unable to express why they don’t like it outside of political wars. Any point of disagreement or dissatisfaction is reduced to an argument over woke/anti-woke in the same way any and all preferences in the Soviet Union were framed as to whether they were revolutionary or reactionary.

And this works the other way, too. Because it’s been politicized, people have the knee-jerk reaction of either defending what is truly a shitty rebrand or saying that no one should care even though caring about trivial aesthetic and marketing crap has a long non-politicized proud tradition (see uniform pron thread).

It should be simple and non-political to  say the obvious: The Cracker Barrel rebrand sucks. It’s boring and bland and makes our shared human-shaped geography just a little bit more soulless and less fun in an era when soul and fun is in short supply. It’s borne of conformist and soggy marketing brain that thinks making the physical world more like a smartphone screen is good design.
 

The fact that we as a society can’t find the way to say this without reference to hyper-partisan framing  is further evidence of creeping totalitarianism in the sense that almost no opinions can be voiced or conversations held outside politics. It’s a hallmark of decaying democracies and hyper-ideological dictatorships.

I like this explanation the best. Cause I can't legit think of a reason for it.

[nicname]

The Target saga is pretty funny. They faced the conservative backlash and “went broke” cuz of their pro-LGBTQ+ marketing, etc. Then cuz of that apparently reversed course and got rid of most of it in the name of profits. Now, they are doubly “broke” cuz progressives are now actively boycotting them for it.

[cfbandyman]

The Target saga is pretty funny. They faced the conservative backlash and “went broke” cuz of their pro-LGBTQ+ marketing, etc. Then cuz of that apparently reversed course and got rid of most of it in the name of profits. Now, they are doubly “broke” cuz progressives are now actively boycotting them for it.

Yeah it's pretty interesting. I mean realistically 20-30% "on each side" is going to do something to to affect a corporation's profit. And I think always trying to get into "new markets" that are seen as political is inherently fraught for businesses to do.