A Cracker Barrel restaurant in Binghamton, N.Y. The company said it removed Uncle Hershel, the elderly gentleman, from its logo to make it more contemporary.Ted Shaffrey/The Associated Press
Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for The Globe and Mail.
The Disappearance of Uncle Herschel is not a horror story, unless you are a member of the leadership team at the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. CBRL-Q chain.
The U.S. restaurant company (not to be confused with the Canadian cheese brand Cracker Barrel) found itself whipsawed in the cultural crosswinds last week for changing its logo to eliminate an iconic image of an elderly gentleman, sitting on a chair and leaning on a barrel, fashioned after the founder’s uncle.
Cracker Barrel’s share price tumbled and the company’s chief executive officer was under pressure to resign. Even U.S. President Donald Trump took to social media to chide the company for the move, urging it to restore its old logo.
And while the pushback prompted the company to relent and say it will bring back Uncle Herschel – a move that boosted the share price almost to precontroversy levels – the reputational damage was severe.
The Cracker Barrel dust-up is yet another cautionary tale for corporate leaders about the increasingly dangerous intersection of business, culture and partisan politics, where companies are colliding with social issues and suffering material damage.
Just ask Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A. BUD-N, Chick-fil-A and Starbucks Corp. SBUX-Q Each of these companies took financial and reputational hits in crises that had nothing to do with the quality of the products and services they sell.
Anheuser-Busch’s 2023 Bud Light beer promotion with social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender woman, outraged its core customer base. Boycotts ensued sales tanked, the company lost billions in market value and Bud Light quickly fell from its long-held top spot as the best-selling beer in the United States.
Chick-fil-A’s plans to expand in Britain in 2019 were scuttled when members of the LGBTQ+ community there protested the view of the chain’s owners on gay rights. Several years and millions of dollars spent on supporting community causes later, the company has rekindled its plans in Britain.
Starbucks put its global work force through diversity training in 2018 after store employees in Philadelphia and Los Angeles refused to allow some Black visitors to use the store bathrooms when they did not buy anything. Company leaders apologized publicly and profusely.
Opinion: Companies are trying to save DEI from Trump. But can they save DEI from itself?
In the Cracker Barrel case, the reason for the controversy depends on who you ask. The company, which has about 660 stores in the U.S., said it streamlined its logo to be more contemporary. The new Uncle Herschel-less logo had only the words “Cracker Barrel” in black font on an orange background.
Critics pounced, with social media users calling the new logo “generic,” “soulless” and “bland.” A YouGov poll of 1,000 U.S. adults found that 76 per cent of them preferred the old logo.
The Cracker Barrel logo as it appeared without Uncle Herschel.Wyatte Grantham-Philips/The Associated Press
Criticism from the conservative right went further, suggesting the elimination of the iconic figure reflected the company’s woke diversity, equity and inclusion posture. Getting rid of an elderly white male, they said, was ageist, racist and sexist.
The company quickly admitted it could have done a better job of explaining why it killed Uncle Herschel.
So noisy was the controversy, the White House posted on social media a mock logo showing a cartoon version of Mr. Trump in Uncle Herschel’s chair with the slogan “America First” placed where the Cracker Barrel name appears in the real logo.
Now, an obvious question is why the President would weigh in on such a seemingly non-presidential issue – except perhaps that he knows how to steal a spotlight when it comes to things that excite his base – but he did.
In his social media post, Mr. Trump said: “Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before. They got a Billion Dollars worth of free publicity if they play their cards right. Very tricky to do, but a great opportunity.”
In announcing its plan to revert to the old logo, the company said: “We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel. We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain.”
The company said it also told the White House directly that Mr. Trump’s comments had been heard.
And Mr. Trump clearly heard the company, posting; “All of your fans very much appreciate it. Good luck into the future. Make lots of money and, most importantly, make your customers happy again!”
There’s no word yet on how quickly Uncle Herschel will be restored to his original place across the Crack Barrel universe.
Until then, he is marooned on the island where so many brand icons – such as Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, the Washington football Redskin and the Cleveland baseball Indian – now reside, relieved of their duties for being lightning rods of controversy in the modern culture wars.