Erik Russell worked at Cracker Barrel for a few years. Now a brand designer, he warns that the company commits ‘one of the cardinal branding sins’.
Cracker Barrel was at odds with his fans after removing “Uncle Herschel” from his logo. The company unveiled its renewed text-all-design, led to a recoil and sinks its share price.
The original logo from 1969 was also only text, but the addition of the now iconic images from 1977 became a staple of his branding.
Although fans are concerned that the rebranding is a symbol of larger cultural changes in the company, cracker Barrel Barrel CEO Julie Felsss Masino tried criticism in an interview with “Good morning America. ”
Masino said in the interview that the feedback was ‘overwhelmingly positive’. Masino also shared that managers from different locations asked for a renovation, adding that “the feedback and the buzz are so good, not only from our customers, but also from our team members.”
The new Cracker logo can be seen on a menu in the restaurant on August 21, 2025 in Homestead, Florida. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images / Getty images)
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Erik Russell knows Cracker Barrel better than most. As a former employee of almost 10 years, the restaurant has a personal meaning for him.
After the logo change, Russell-Die now works as a brand designer-ertegenegen in a now viral post on X in which he said that the company committed ‘brand suicide’.
Russell explained the changes that he saw internally and how the company went away from representing ‘a more traditional time in America’.
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store’s Exterior with a plate with the old logo with “Uncle Heschel.” (Jeffrey Greenberg / Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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The former employee of the old Cracker Barrel said that, while he went to Bob Jones University, he fits the restaurant well, because the school had a rule against students who worked at branches who served alcohol. Cracker Barrel had no alcohol on the menu until mid -2020. Russell said that this change “really the start of the end for that era of the Cracker culture spelled.”
The change in his alcohol policy was not the first sign that the company was going in a different direction. Russell remembered how Cracker Barrel changed his dress codes for employees, from requiring certain hairstyles and cropped face hair to be more relaxed. He admitted that only the rules were not what the culture of the company made, but it was rather a combination of factors.
“Rules do not necessarily have magic for them, but I think that when you add all those things together, together with the attitudes in the store, the way in which the manager enforces the code of conduct, I think you get a picture of a place that understood family values, understood traditional values, pulled a certain type of employee,” said Russell.
When it comes to the symbolism of Cracker Barrel’s new logo, Russell said that “the” much reading between the lines “, but that those who” know what they should look for “will see it. As a graphic and brand designer, he said that the logo is much more than an emblem.
“There is no such thing as” just a logo, “said Russell. “When you first draw a logo, it doesn’t matter how good that logo is technical, right? It means nothing. What makes a logo useful and what makes branding meaningful is the connection that represents your customers.”
Diners eat at a cracker barrel in Stuart, Fla. (Jeffrey Greenberg / Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Russell compared the cracker to rebranding with the introduction of GAP’s changed logo design and said that customers develop “a certain emotional attachment” with such iconic symbols.
“If you go on Sundays and get the homestyle and replaces the cookies with toast, you can make a delicious baked chicken sandwich with tomatoes and lettuce and onions and all the mucous effects that are free and then you can get your three sides.”
A Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Dumfries, Virginia, USA, on Tuesday 21 May 2024. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg/Getty Images/Getty images)
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“Our values have not changed, and the heart and soul of Cracker Vat have not changed. And Uncle Herschel remains at the front of our restaurants and on our menu. He is the face of ‘The Herschel Way’, the basis of how our 70,000-plus employees offer the national hospitality for which we are known,” Cracker Barrel said in a statement.
“Cracker Barrel has been a destination for comfort and community for more than half a century, and this fifth evolution of the brand of the brand, that works on digital platforms, as well as billboards and signs along the road, is a call-back for the original and even more rooted in the iconic barrel shape and word marking that it all started in 1969.”
After the new logo was released, Cracker Barrel experienced his worst losing series in months, while shares of Cracker Barrel (CBRL) tumbled more than 12% on Thursday, the steepest decline since April, before the session ended more than 7%. The decrease knew more than $ 90 million in market value.
