Cracker Barrel Outrage Was Almost Certainly Driven by Bots, Researchers Say
Doesn't that make more sense than lots of people caring about Cracker Barrel?
I'll give you a hint, the company behind the bots rhymes with Gracker Ferrel.
Nah, Cracker Barrel almost certainly wanted the redesign because that particular sector has been moving trying to avoid the whole "You can tell this used to be a Pizza Hut," thing for a while.
They want to be able to just open up a store anywhere with minimal investment. Then if their store is super generic it's real easy to offload the real estate if that location doesn't work out. It's easier for another firm to buy the real estate if they don't have to spend a bunch of money making the former Cracker Barrel not look like a Cracker Barrel.
The entire modern "conservative movement" is completely astroturfed. It's all funded and sponsored by the elites, in order to convince people to reject policies intended to improve their own lives, in favor of policies that exclusively benefit the elites.
It's almost as if someone figured out that conservatives, in an effort to feel the need to play the victim, will react negatively and thus be more engaged when presented with non-conforming news.
A sort of dissonance.....that happens cognitively.
Nah pretty much everyone was in agreement that the new logo was worse, what do you me-
a sample of 52,000 posts made on X
Ah yes, the defunct site that is mostly bots so that Muskrat can continue to earn ad revenue NaziBucks
similar conversations were happening on the alt-tech platforms like Donald Trump’s Truth Social, Twitter knock-offs Gettr and Gab
Ah yes, the sites that use amplification bots to keep their users riled up and strengthen the echo chamber
Yea a lot of people didn't like the new bland logo, but conservatives were going on about how it's an attack on their culture and heritage. To go that far about a truck stop restaurant was not an organic happening. This is why it doesn't matter that Charlie Kirk was shot. If it wasn't that, the outrage machine would have turned to something else.
I thought it was a stupid and pointless business move or potentially a publicity stunt. And I’ll admit I’d be slightly bummed to walk into Cracker Barrel sit down and not see the peg game or all the weird old country store bullshit because nostalgias a removed. But like it’s not even good southern cooking, the only things good there were fried chicken livers and breakfast food. The former can be found in any southern town with much higher quality and Waffle House exists and is generally really close to most Cracker Barrel’s for the latter.
Nah pretty much everyone was in agreement that the new logo was worse, what do you me-
Right? I'm definitely not right wing in any way shape or form, but I enjoy Cracker Barrel and the atmosphere once in a while. The logo doesn't need to be updated to the bland bullshit modern marketers want to force just so they can make millions in bullshit consulting fees. There is no way in hell the new logo was better than the old one to represent the company, but someone got paid a ton of money to convince them that it was a good decision clearly without any market research to back it up. A blind idiot could tell that logo was a worse choice objectively without any politics involved.
Were there bots? Oh, for sure. But they weren't the reason for the backlash, the shit decision was the reason it was a thing at all.
I still suspect the entire thing was a marketing ploy. That they had no intention of ACTUALLY changing the logo. They just wanted people to push back so they could get in the news. I wouldn’t be surprised if the marketing firm that made the logo also started the backlash.
I suspect the same is true about American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ad.
A bot says…?
Most right-wing outrage has been driven by bots for a decade. Yeah, what’s new?
Here, Gizmodo. Let me fix that title for you.
"Almost half the upset tweets on the most bottidden platform (twitter) about Cracker Barrel were likely from bots."
Realistically, the upset was probably more about how the new logo came on all of a sudden, was very plain, and like how coca cola found out with new coke in the 1980s, it's not necessarily that people love cracker barrel. It's a part of their nostalgia they grew up with. They went with Grandma and Grandpa growing up. It was a special little stop on a family vacation to eat. They liked looking at the toys and candy in the gift shop and it was so weird and cool they had a store in the restaurant. It can be a company nightmare to screw with a logo that's been around for decades that could have memories attached to it.
Especially the new one is pretty lame.
Exactly. I've been to Cracker Barrel maybe 2 or 3 times. I think the food is decent, especially since I didn't grow up eating southern style food. I'm not really nostalgic for it, but will prefer stopping there over a fast food place if it's near where we're going to stop anyway on a road trip (i.e. to get gas).
The new logo sucks, and it looks like they ripped off Denny's. Likewise the interior redesign completely kills the soul of the place. Crack Barrel isn't a cool hunting lodge or something, it's a place to get home-style cooking (or what I imagine southern-style home cooking to be like) away from home, so it should feel like eating in a kitchen, not a lodge. The store is like the box of toys and puzzles and whatnot grandma and grandpa would have on the coffee table while food is getting finished up and really adds to the vibe.
I don't really care all that much about Cracker Barrel though. It's not a place I'd ever go out of my way to eat at, but it's still a decent option when I'm hungry and tired.
I like Cracker Barrel's four vegetarian sides plate. I can pick reasonably healthy options and the price isn't terrible. They are my preferred interstate-adjacent dining option on roadtrips. I'm even a loyalty member.
Yet I can't imagine spending one microsecond thinking about their logo let alone being stupid enough to be manipulated into having an opinion and then believing it relates to politics. Unless you are the majority shareholder, your view is utterly irrelevant. Shut up and either patronize the place or not.
There are a lot of people today on the right who cosplay as libertarians but somehow care deeply about the logo of a company they don't own.
Exactly.
I only go to Cracker Barrel on road trips and when they happen to be near where I plan to stop anyway. I don't go out of my way to go there, but I do prefer them over fast food joints.
Their new logo is stupid, mostly because it reminds me of Denny's. It doesn't change whether I'll go there, it only makes me think their logo is stupid when I do.
Imagine how much more successful any given business might be by simply.... ignoring Twitter.
For all we know CB may have been behind the outrage
Biglari has been trying to take over Cracker Barrel for years. Not really hard to guess who was behind this.
People need to remember that these themed businesses are taking huge risk by maintaining their identity. If a CB goes out of business they practically take a loss on the building because no one wants to buy an old timey restaurant. It’s too niche. Companies are going to bland and grey so the properties are easier to sell. It was never about woke and everything to do with money as usual.
Especially since Cracker Barrel is publicly traded.
That said, I don't think Cracker Barrel locations are all that different from Applebees or Chili's. The "country store" is basically a waiting area, but with merch instead of more benches for waiting to be seated. Or it's like Buffalo Wild Wings and its counter for order pickups and sauce sales.
I think the main intent here is to appeal to more people. A new logo could get people interested who weren't before.
Who had money on Cracker Barrel faking outrage about a plan that wasn’t to be?
They were also inconveniently experiencing significant negative feedback to their business decision to sell warmed up day old food as a standard operating procedure just before new of the logo drama erupted. If you thought cracker barrel was extremely mid before, it's apparently gone full Applebee's microwave kitchen bad lately.
Dang. They were mediocre the last time I went there (about 10 years ago), but at least uniquely mediocre (mediocre southern food). I've been there 2-3 times, and each time was on a road trip where the choice was Cracker Barrel, Denny's, or a fast food place, and Cracker Barrel has an interesting store.
I very much dislike Applebees, Chilis, and other massive chains, but at least Cracker Barrel is a bit unique in presentation and has decent portion sizes. Or had, idk, I haven't been there in a decade.
I don't think anyone goes there for fine dining, so them reheating stuff isn't all of that surprising. But it is disappointing.
I wonder what percentage of posts containing the words “woke” or “DEI” are from bots, and what percentage of posts with those words are from liberals getting upset about a bot post.
Peter Teil straight up told an audience that he will push ideas with tech.
For what purpose?
Stir shit up, get people to declare sides. Or maybe for the lulz.
I'm glad people here are onto the attack on our internet.
Making non-political things political means people aren't looking at other stuff that actually matters. People have a limited attention span, and a limited amount of time to look at things outside work and family. Fill that with bullshit that doesn't matter and they can't stay educated on actual current events.
To distract us from the other bots.
Maybe this article was written by a bot to distract us from the bots talking about other bots. Maybe I'm a bot. Hmm...
The culture war outrage keeps people from thinking about real problems. Instead, they're perpetually angry about shit that has literally zero impact on their lives.
Could be advertising by Cracker Barrel too.
Someone got offended that they took the cracker off the logo.
I mean they took the barrel off too. What is cracker barrel without a cracker and a barrel?
To be fair, the new logo is kind of barrel shaped. It's also Denny's shaped...
The point where I realized it was fake was when nobody was complaining about the font or going "Uhm, aktually it's 'typeface'!"
I love watching companies tear themselves apart trying to appeal to both sides of the aisle.
Eventually, they're just going to have to stop trying and pick a side. That's when the real fun begins.
They choose… profit.
The entire thing feels manufactured by design to get people talking about Cracker Barrel.
Why not just run a decent business? You don't need to appeal to the left or right to sell food at a restaurant to hungry road trippers. Make your product appealing and people will come.
That's what I don't understand about target as well. They went out of their way to appeal to the left, then out of their way to appeal to the right, and now everyone is pissed off. If they stuck to selling stuff at reasonable prices, they would've been fine.
Don't discriminate in your workforce, just find the best people for the job and you'll do fine with people regardless of their politics.
It's part of how hysteria works.
The average idiot can't resist it by definition.
Why not just run a decent business?
Bc propaganda sells and corporations have entire teams that exist to market a brand as a value. That's why Dove and Axe are both owned by the same parent company.
One exists to empower women and one exists to empower men by objectifying women. It's not that either are really run by anybody with those values. They're both faceless corporations, and it's all just a marketing ploy.
A bunch of my friends thought the logo change was dumb, too.
A bit rude to call them bots. ;p
There's a difference between thinking the change is dumb, which is something that happens in an individual's own mind as a passing thought, and thinking you suddenly need to tell everyone about it, and have arguments about it, and seek validations of your passing thought about it in large communities of other people and turn it into a national discussion. Bots are why everyone started talking about it, and that made people feel like they needed to tell everyone else what they thought about it too.
People were simply not losing any sleep over this (and never would have) until bots made it go viral. Some people might have legitimately formed such a thought without any significant outside influence, but it would have been an empty, meaningless, inconsequential thought, like thousands of others that likely go through everyone's brain in any given day to be summarily dismissed and promptly forgotten.
The point the article is raising is that the attention economy has now weaponized such insignificant thoughts, and can exploit them into controlling people's behavior, and thus, create actual real world consequences, the same way a hacker exploits access into a home computer to turn it into a botnet that they can orchestrate to perform actual attacks. It may not do any particular harm to the individual who has been motivated in this way, but it can do catastrophic damage to the targets of their collective wrath, scorn, and ridicule. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words might destroy civilization.
The idea though is that their thoughts are being influenced by bots
I hadn't heard of the change, nor the outraged bot army.
How about those Epstein files?
cracker bargle
Culture war keeps the rubes fighting the wrong people so that the real villains can keep robbing them.
tl;ds looked like a bot got hold of it
No shit
I saw the logo, thought it was weird, figured they would roll it right back in a week.
Even if it was bots, humans are still unleashing hose things. Someone cared enough to do that.
No, they didn't. The point was to rile people up over culture war nonsense.
Honestly I just thought it was funny they got rid of the cracker and the barrel.
Through the course of the controversy, I learned that the "cracker" was the Uncle Herschel mentioned in the menu a few times. He's a character of theirs, something of a mascot, though a much subtler one than most other restaurant mascots. He's in the art but his name isn't widely advertised. A couple menu items have his name in them (e.g. Uncle Herschel's Breakfast), but the name is not connected to the mascot in the logo.
Oh, I also thought it was funny that they said they changed the logo to be more inclusive (I guess of people who don't look like Uncle Herschel), but they still don't operate in California due to that state's progressive policies, so they can shove their "inclusive" talk. Actions speak louder than words. They do hire women, and people of color, which is a great start for a restaurant so steeped in "Southern values," but you can't say nobody is excluded from the table while excluding an entire state based on the politics of its government. That's just as dumb as rock groups refusing to play whichever Southern state did a stupid thing most recently.
The cracker in Cracker Barrel is that the barrels are “Cracker Barrels”
Exactly! Barrels full of crackers. And the new logo kinda looks like a barrel (it also kinda looks like Denny's, but that's neither here nor there).
There's 5 cracker barrels in California...
I suppose I should have updated my information before saying that... last I checked, there weren't, but I don't know how old that information is.
They do hire women, and people of color, which is a great start for a restaurant so steeped in "Southern values,"
I'd say that having women and people of color cook for you has been a Southern value for a long time.
