DEI and wokeism are divisive scourges on our society. While there’s some commonsense relief that the mindless leftist onslaught is finally being thwarted, the remaining holdouts infuriate even more -- read the room, already. One such place is Cracker Barrel, and its recalcitrant resistance to robust all-American (especially Southern) values is incongruous with its traditional country motif.

Corporate logos represent a company’s identity, values, and mission. For Cracker Barrel, the iconic logo welcomed good, hearty folks with a nice elderly gentleman (perhaps a patriarch, perish the thought) sitting in a wooden chair beside a barrel upon which his left arm seeks deserved rest. It really conveyed Southern warmth and charm. Now, the logo conveys a bland… never mind, I don’t know what, such is its uninspiring, androgynous-like design. Perhaps the unintended message is “keep driving,” there’s a cozier restaurant around the country bend.

Julie Felss Masino is the wayward CEO, and Sarah Moore is the chief marketing officer -- your instinctive impressions may be well founded. But irrespective of their political leanings, Masino seems intent on repeating the stubborn resistance that pervaded Bud Light and Target, for example. Masino is truly cracked as she maintains that feedback on their new logo has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

My goodness, the obvious first step in fashioning any business solution is recognizing the problem, but Masino seems isolated in her C Suite fiefdom, unaware of the “overwhelmingly negative” feedback (especially among once-loyal and traditional customers) about her logo and restaurant interior design changes. With such willful and wanton ignorance of customer zeitgeist, how can she possibly retain the confidence of the board, shareholders, and customers?

Here’s a map showing the locations of Cracker Barrel restaurants. Here’s a map showing congressional districts by party. For the most part, the two maps mirror one another: the red districts (tending more conservative) overlap nicely with the restaurant locations. It’s noteworthy that locations are very sparse on the leftist coast. One may reasonably wonder: as with Bud Light, is Cracker Barrel going to sacrifice its traditional customer base for the sake of going woke? Don’t Julie and Sarah realize that going woke often means going broke?

Perhaps worse than the horrid new logo that defaces the charming old stores and restaurants is what appears on their website. They even have a “Culture and Inclusion” webpage that features a series of scrolling images including what one may reasonably conjecture is two “mommies” with a hapless child on their laps (as of 08/21/25). Though I suppose it could be a mother with a daughter who is at least a generation older than her little brother. Nope, given Cracker Barrel’s inclinations to stick it to commonsense Southerners, it really must be two “wedded” mommies.

Clearly, if one may dare believe one’s lying eyes, Cracker Barrel is being mismanaged by crackpots. They shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds them, even as they feed us not just good ol’ country cuisine, but a smorgasbord of DEI sides that causes indigestion. The abandoned old farmer may have leaned on the barrel, but Masino needs to be draped over it – metaphorically speaking. Corporate governance: do your job. You’ve already lost over $200 million in value after the new logo release.

Image: Cracker Barrel