Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino has responded to the backlash against the company's bizarre woke rebrand, and it's as bad as you might imagine.
Speaking to ABC's "Good Morning America" on Thursday, anchor Michael Strahan, Masino was asked about the videos on social media slamming the redesign backlash.
Masino first reflected on the decision the company made a year ago to change the look of restaurants inside, removing the more down-home country look for something more sterile and changing the menu.
Masino said that for the remodels they were responding to what their guests want, saying, "We are doing all this for them."
And how about that menu change? Masino appeared to try to dodge the question about, "Is the food changing?" Instead, her response was that "innovation has proven to be really great at Cracker Barrel" and said that they were "reinvigorating their dinner menu."
That's woke speak for "Yes, yes we are, because we know better than generations before us who made food people kept coming back for."
When asked why Cracker Barrel was making all these changes, Masino's corporate-speak didn't fail with her reply that "Cracker Barrel needs to feel like the Cracker Barrel for today and for tomorrow."
Strahan then asked the CEO about how the new look has prompted numerous videos on social media slamming it, and she just brushed it off.
"Honestly, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive that people like what we are doing," Masino responded.
During an interview a year ago, the CEO admitted to CNBC's Jim Cramer that the company made the menu changes with input from "people who love Cracker Barrel" and "people who have never been to Cracker Barrel." Oh boy.
Part of the rebrand included the recent unveiling of the new logo for the company, opting to remove the man sitting next to a barrel from its iconic logo and instead using just the words "Cracker Barrel" on a yellow background.
And the logo change immediately sparked a backlash on social media, and some of the hot takes are truly hilarious, with the hashtag "crackerbarrel" trending on Thursday on X.
"It's like Cracker Barrel was taken over by Dolores Umbridge," Joel Berry, Managing Editor of The Babylon Bee, wrote.
It’s like Cracker Barrel was taken over by Dolores Umbridge pic.twitter.com/TyiGTNDyYF
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) August 21, 2025
"This is lame and ghey," another person wrote. "Change it back and purge all the woke idiots from your company before it's too late. Don't sell out like this @CrackerBarrel."
This is lame and ghey.
— ironwillforge4 🇺🇸 🏴☠️ (@ironwillforge4) August 20, 2025
Change it back and purge all the woke idiots from your company before its too late.
Don't sell out like this @CrackerBarrel #crackerbarrell pic.twitter.com/NOprOWaAwz
While a third person suggested Cracker Barrel's woke rebrand was akin to Bud Light's disaster when it recruited trans-identifying biological male influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
“@CrackerBarrel I love the new logo. #crackerbarrell #budlight,” the post read.
@CrackerBarrel I love the new logo. #crackerbarrell #budlight pic.twitter.com/z3zT3Jn92x
— Tommy Tutone (@TommyTuton1014) August 21, 2025
"As a brand designer that worked at @CrackerBarrel for almost 9 years, watching them commit brand suicide is... something," a fourth person wrote.
As a brand designer that worked at @CrackerBarrel for almost 9 years, watching them commit brand suicide is... something pic.twitter.com/b99pCymvyN
— 𝐄𝐫𝐢𝐤 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥 (@rikoruss31) August 20, 2025
READ MORE: Cracker Barrel Participates in the Pride Month Wave, Suicide Watch May Be Imminent
The redesign is only the latest in a series of unfortunate decisions by the company, founded in 1969 in Lebanon, TN, following its move in 2023 to jump on the LGBTQ bandwagon, as evidenced by its rainbow-colored Pride rockers outside some of the restaurants, as my RedState colleague Jennifer Oliver O'Connell reported.
I took this screenshot directly from the Cracker Barrel website. And you thought the only reason kids weren’t safe there was all the unhealthy food… pic.twitter.com/U0pq0FAsLx
— Populist Pup (@RokerGlasses) June 9, 2023
She wrote:
Cracker Barrel is not hiding its goals to become more inclusive. They even have a "diversity and inclusion" tab on their website:
It read:
Our teams work hard to create a culture of hospitality that's welcoming, respectful and inclusive to everyone who walks through our doors. Our food and décor celebrate warm memories of the past, and our inclusive culture and beliefs help us make way for an even brighter future, together. Discrimination, overt or through unconscious bias, has no place at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.
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