Jason Aldean & His Wife, Brittany, Join Cracker Barrel Boycott: “Y’all Been Actin’ A Fool”

The Aldean family has officially entered into the Cracker Barrel rebrand controversy chat.

By this point, you’ve likely heard about the Cracker Barrel controversy. After rolling out the same logo for close to fifty years, the eatery known as Cracker Barrel just announced a major rebrand. They’re opting to go with a more minimalist logo, and they are making a huge mistake. There’s no amount of buttered and jellied biscuits that could save them from this.

As you can see, the old logo that we’ve all come to know and love – featuring an old man sitting next to a barrel – is no more. They’ve opted to “clean things up,” and got rid of the a) the old man b) the barrel and c) every ounce of character the original logo had to debut a lifeless, sterile, pointless, boring new symbol.

It’s a travesty:

I’m baffled by the fact that modern brands insist on ruining their own aura.

As you might imagine, the logo change – and the restaurant interior remodel to an overdone farmhouse look – has people up in arms. Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino insists that people are loving the restaurant’s rebrand, and suggested that the response has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

Try telling that to the stockholders. Right after the logo change announcement was made, Cracker Barrel’s stock saw a nasty 14% drop, something to the tune of $100 million in value. It’s since recovered a bit (buy the dip, right?), but still has a 5% drop over the past five days. On the year however, Cracker Barrel us up a whopping  38%.

Much of that precipitous drop had to do with the public response to the changes Cracker Barrel was making. Some were calling for a boycott, and country music star John Rich even called it the restaurant’s “Bud Light Moment.” And he wasn’t the only name in country music that shared their thoughts on the overarching changes to the beloved southern eatery.

Jason Aldean and his wife, Brittany, went out for a breakfast date earlier this week at a First Watch location, and decided that it would be the perfect time for a photo op and a shot at the breakfast restaurant competitor that’s been making headlines:

“Breakfast date this morning. We would be at Cracker Barrel but y’all been actin’ a fool.”

See Cracker Barrel? You are already losing business because of the rebrand and overhaul.

It’s really quite a wild and unfortunate time for the Cracker Barrel franchise. Even the President of the United States has given his two cents on the matter, calling for the Tennessee-based restaurant to go back on their changes and they’d have “a billion dollars worth of free publicity.”

But as of right now, it seems like Cracker Barrel is standing its ground… for whatever reason. They put out a long-winded statement addressing the matter on August 25, and basically said they wouldn’t be changing course even with all of the backlash:

“If the last few days have shown us anything, it’s how deeply people care about Cracker Barrel. We’re truly grateful for your heartfelt voices. You’ve also shown us that we could’ve done a better job sharing who we are and who we’ll always be.

What has not changed, and what will never change, are the values this company was built on when Cracker barrel first opened in 1969: hard work, family, and scratch-cooked food made with care. A place where everyone feels at home, no matter where you’re from or where you’re headed. That’s the Cracker Barrel you’ll always find…

While our logo and remodels may be making headlines, our bigger focus is still right where it belongs… in the kitchen and on your plate: serving generous portions of the food you crave at fair prices and doing it with the kind of country hospitality that brightens your days and creates lasting memories.

We also want to be sure Cracker Barrel is here for the next generation of families, just as it has been for yours. That means showing up on new platforms and in new ways, but always with our heritage at the heart.

We take that responsibility very seriously. We know we won’t always get everything right the first time, but we’ll keep testing, learning, and listening to our guests and employees. At the end of the day, our promise is simple: you’ll always find comfort, community, and country hospitality here at Cracker Barrel. Uncle Herschel wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Thank you for caring so much and come see for yourself the country hospitality that makes Cracker Barrel feel like home.”

If you don’t change back Cracker Barrel, who knows what other country music stars and their significant others will fire shots at you. Is that what you really want?