🪑Cracker Barrel's billion-dollar nostalgia battle, Kraft-Heinz corporate split and Meta's fight to rein in its AI, all the latest in brand news
Issue #70
Issue #70 | Weekly Exhale
Living in Smyrna, Tennessee, Rachel Love—rachelallthelove on TikTok—usually posted about cats and single motherhood. A small circle of folks tuned in, mostly neighbours and the curious. Who else was watching?
Then on April 20th, she turned her camera onto the town’s Cracker Barrel. The store had just been remodelled. A restaurant refresh is supposed to feel bright, maybe even hopeful. But Love felt the opposite. She felt dread, as if something kindred was being pulled away. She posted:
When Cracker Barrel took away the last piece of nostalgia you had left.
She wasn’t alone.
Two million views later, her comments section read like a town hall. Cracker Barrel, it turned out, was about the comfort of things that never change—rocking chairs lined up as the first welcome, peg games waiting in the gift shop, food like grandma used to make. Like coming home.
With a twinkle in her eye, Love kept posting. People kept watching. Soon, she was collecting feedback from those who loved Cracker Barrel and those who wanted it to succeed.
The feedback was blunt: The new walls look like a country-chic Pinterest board gone rogue. The green bean recipe had been tampered with. The buttermilk biscuits weren’t the same. But the new booths were welcome. Adding beer to the drinks list was, at best, just about okay.
Cracker Barrel’s social media team stepped in: We’re not changing who we are...just shining things up a bit! They sent Love a box of swag, patting her on the head for being “passionate”. But the story had already outgrown them. The Wall Street Journal and Fox News were covering it. And Love, playing along, was crowned “The Unofficial Spokesperson for the people of Cracker Barrel.”
Yet less than three months later, Cracker Barrel went ahead with changes to its logo. Uncle Herschel-gone. The barrel he leaned against-gone. The rocking chair-gone. The words themselves: Old Country Store-gone.
Oh, and one final act: Cracker Barrel deleted its “not changing who we are” comment from Love’s original video.
For outsiders, the update barely registered. What’s all the fuss? That old logo was never built for the digital age. And besides, does anyone really think Cracker Barrel is authentic? It was invented in 1969, not 1869. The stock is owned by BlackRock, GMT Capital and Vanguard, hardly small-town stuff. A Fugazi.
But by then it was too late. Cracker Barrel had already blown the roof off its porch. The internet broke. Donald Trump, never one to miss a branding fight, waded in. The stock tumbled.
Within ten days, the rebrand was gone. Just another failed brand makeover yanked back before it could ever walk forward. A “billion-dollar opportunity to make customers happy again”, as Trump put it.
Old logo reinstated. Share price steadied.
And now the spotlight shifts. Not on Rachel Love and the people of Cracker Barrel, but on CEO Julie Feiss Masino.
Masino is no fool. She wasn’t swayed by nostalgia, TikTok, or the news cycle. She was tuned into the dashboard that mattered: same-store sales climbing to 2.9% then 4.7%. Three straight quarters of growth. The first lift in gift-shop sales since 2023.
The remodels were showing positive returns.
The splinter under Masino’s fingernail wasn’t green beans or refits. It was a complaint filed by America First Legal in July, accusing the company’s DEI program of violating civil rights. The truth is, the stock slide wasn’t triggered by logos at all. That only accelerated the fall. The decline had already begun, driven by the mood hanging over the company since the filing.
Masino, shaped by her Taco Bell playbook, had little instinct for Cracker Barrel’s particular kind of country food and country memory. In that context, the logo change was less a misstep than handing MAGA the rifle, carving “go woke, go broke” into the bullet, and pulling the trigger herself.
And in doing so, she’s handed another weapon to Sardar Biglari. The activist investor has waged seven proxy wars against Cracker Barrel since 2011, with only partial success. Now he’s back, pointing to the $700 million remodel and rebrand strategy, the dividend cuts, and the botched logo as evidence of leadership failure.
Given where corporate America stands—and how divided the country is—I doubt this showdown ends in mercy.
But back in Smyrna, Rachel-all-the-Love is upbeat: “We’re gonna make it the best it’s ever been. Don’t call it a comeback, but I’m feeling it.”
We’re in a hospice room, afternoon light slanting in. My mom is propped up in her bed, her name card above the headboard, wires looping from the wall. Her black vest has lace edging, her pearls still around her neck—dignities she’s holding onto. On the over-bed table is a meal tray cluttered with fast-food wrappers, a jug of water with a straw standing guard.
Her face is puffy now. The bruises spreading down her arm tell the truth: the end is near.
Beside her, in a giant electric red recliner far too big for him, sits her seven-year-old grandson. He’s set up camp. A blue-cased tablet on his lap, nurse’s remote and a couple of toys in reach. He’s demolishing the free biscuits.
It’s a scene of small mercies.
We forget sometimes: eating together is special. A little ritual. A small reward. The food and setup might be low-key. But the ties it holds between people, between families, are anything but.
The Wall Street Journal noted that Rachel Love had been going to Cracker Barrel in Smyrna, Tennessee, for most of her life—breakfasts and dinners with her parents, but most of all with her grandmother. In her swag unboxing video, she even wore a Cracker Barrel sweater passed down from her. In Love’s own words, her grandmother, who's still here, is a ride-or-die CB.
In one video, without words, Love's teenage son lies asleep on a care-home bed. Beside him sits his great-grandmother—Love's grandmother—in a blue denim shirt and cap, stroking his arm as he dreams. Three generations apart, and yet, they couldn’t be closer. The caption read: They were so lucky to have this time together.
And suddenly, Love’s Cracker Barrel commentary seems less like a quirky local influencer, surfaced by the algorithm and amplified by a media frenzy. She’s a granddaughter with roots knotted into the store’s porch posts and rocking chairs. Was she holding on too tightly? Maybe. But, you don’t need a degree in business to see it: that kind of nostalgia is what keeps people hopeful about the future.
I look down at my phone again, at the picture of my mom and her only grandson in the hospice. I saved it in favourites, an oddly named place to keep it, but that’s where it lives.
As I hold the image, the room comes back.
My son, done playing with the buttons of the chair, packed up and stood at the door. Mom, determined, wanted to stand. As I helped her to her feet, I called him back: “Come on, say goodbye to Nona properly.”
He ran back, a quick hug. She pulled him close. “Is that all? This might be the last time you see me.”
He didn’t catch the meaning, but understood the cue. He hugged tighter. She squeezed back with all of the little strength she had left.
And that was the last time they were together.
Now I know why I saved the picture. Not because it was the kind you'd frame. Not because it's the easiest to look at. But because it reminds me we were lucky.
So lucky to have that time together.
Let's rise together with every issue. ♡
Market Moves
Business confidence rises despite economic concerns | The Times
Why is UK borrowing so high? | Financial Times
August was a drama-filled month for the US economy | Quartz
Brand Beat
Cracker Barrel: The corporate logo that broke the internet | The New York Times
Why algorithms demand culture-first, not brand-first marketing | Forbes
State senator sues Omnicom and Whirlpool over Cannes awards | Ad Age
Kraft Heinz finalises breakup deal in corporate split | The Wall Street Journal
Food brands harness 90s nostalgia | The Guardian
Why we're all thirsty for Mediterranean lager | Creative Salon
Wetherspoons pub thrives under all-women management team | Daily Star
Kohl’s taps private labels to drive its turnaround | Retail Dive
Don’t make brand models harder than they need to be | Marketing Week
Influencers adapt to ban on less healthy food ads | MediaCat
Weird Al fronts Prudential’s surprising marketing shift | Adweek
Spike Lee and Sofia Coppola head A24’s cinema opening | Variety
How brands can deliver real-world value to Gen Z | Ad Age
The kicks you wear: Did Nike lose the youth? | Business of Fashion
J. Crew faces backlash after AI-created “vintage” ad | Futurism
Glossier’s new product was announced in a magazine | Feed Me
How one Instagram post brought Skininavia a whole new audience | Marketing Brew
Serena Williams’ fuels Ozempic culture | Vogue
Brands court BookTokers with spicy romance novel campaigns | Mediacat
We loved Costa. But artisan brands are gaining ground | The Observer
Starting Up
Feisty protein soda is not for gym bros | Vy Cutting
More than 10 European startups become unicorns this year | TechCrunch
This woman knows your next favourite snack | The New York Times
Wype raises £1m to clean up bottom care | Startups Magazine
Attio, AI CRM, raises $52m from Google Ventures | UKTN
Tech Tidbits
Meta fights to rein in unruly AI chatbots | The Verge
Accenture CEO identifies three red flags behind AI failures | Fortune
Meet the 100 most influential people shaping AI in 2025 | Time
Why Sam Altman should read Derrida now | The Observer
The woman’s hacker house breaking A.I.’s glass ceiling | The New York Times
Venture Vibes
Activist investor seizes opportunity after Cracker Barrel uproar | The Wall Street Journal
Veteran entrepreneurs unveil unconventional VC firm | Forbes
TikTok owner ByteDance sets valuation at $330 billion | Reuters
Investors are loving Loveable | TechCrunch
Peter Thiel backed SNÖ Ventures to shut down | Sifted
Design Driven
Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, named USA's chief design officer | Techmeme
Is there such a thing as an ethical designer? | It’s Nice That
Why 7-Eleven’s lowercase ‘n’ makes its logo iconic | Marketing Scoop
Lego’s retro iMac is giving Y2K vibes | Creative Bloq
Happiness
Overhearing mom’s friends gossip about my dad left me floored | Slate
How micro-retirement lets Gen Z press pause on careers | Inc.
How to build a business plan for a happier life | Fast Company
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Stay gold 🙏🏻
So great. Have commented on ‘the other place’ 🙏🏼