Wouldn’t you know it, the logo controversy for Cracker Barrel was driven by bots
Plus: Theo Von got DHS to take down a video
Wouldn’t you know it, the logo controversy for Cracker Barrel was driven by bots
Don’t believe all the outrage you see online.
Social media can give us a funhouse view of the world, warping our perception of what our fellow Americans believe, and the Cracker Barrel controversy is a case in point. The controversy over the rebrand in late August was driven in large part by bots.
Researchers from PeakMetrics, a firm that tracks online conversations, estimates about 44.5% of posts about Cracker Barrel on X in the 24 hours after the restaurant chain’s rebrand gained attention in late August were from bots or likely bots, according to The Wall Street Journal. In other words, this was an astro-turfed, artificially accelerated culture war.
That’s not to say the rebrand was botched. When the restaurant chain switched back to its old logo a week after changing it, it didn’t seem like too much of a surprise. For a brand that’s rooted in nostalgia and Americana, any rebrand effort could face a backlash. There was a specific angle to the Cracker Barrel backlash, though, that wasn’t about fonts or logos, but culture wars.
The business imperative behind the rebrand
PeakMetrics found nearly 90% of posts on X about Cracker Barrel framed the rebrand through issues like woke, anti-woke, D.E.I., or un-American. And a study from Open Measures, another data-tracking firm, found right-leaning social networking sites had the highest mentions about Cracker Barrel. President Donald Trump’s own social network Truth Social led the pack, followed by Get, Gab, 4chan, and Rumble.
Viewed from this perspective, the anti-rebrand backlash to Cracker Barrel seems less like a genuine grassroots movement than a culture war designed to divide that’s aided by bots and driven on the internet’s most partisan platforms. The rebrand, in fact, wasn’t woke, and behind it wasn’t ideology, but a business imperative.
“We’re just not as relevant as we once were,” Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino told CNN in June before the new logo was unveiled.
With its older customer base, Cracker Barrel was especially hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and many of its customers didn’t return after the pandemic’s deadliest days. Cracker Barrel also faced wider challenges associated with inflation as customers cut back and eat out less frequently.
Anger spreads faster than joy
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) told 60 Minutes he believes social media is “a cancer and it is taking all of our worst impulses and putting them on steroids.”
“It is driving us to division, it is driving us to hate, these algorithms that have captured our very souls, they’ve captured our free agency, these dopamine hits that get our young people, and our old people, addicted to outrage and hate that serve us up on a regular basis are absolutely leading us down a very dark path,” Cox said.
Indeed, a 2016 study on the Chinese social media app Weibo found anger spreads online faster than joy, and if you’ve spent any time on social media in the U.S. the past few weeks, you don’t need a study to tell you that. But maybe the Cracker Barrel controversy provides us with a lesson in how to see things more clearly.
If you got your opinions about Cracker Barrel from social media, you might have thought the new logo had something to do with D.E.I. But if you got your opinions by actually going there in person, you might have considered the new logo had something to do with the fact that people weren’t coming in as much as they used to.
In a world where our views are warped by algorithms, sometimes the most important thing we can do is talk face to face.
Theo Von got DHS to take down a video
The podcaster, who interviewed Trump last year, said the agency didn’t get permission.
The Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, is in hot water over unauthorized content it’s posted on social media. Last week, the agency posted a video showing agents arresting people set to the theme song of the Pokémon TV show followed by another post of a clip of Theo Von saying “Heard you got deported, dude. Bye,” that the podcast host says was taken out of context.
“Yooo DHS I didnt approve to be used in this. I know you know my address so send a check,” Von wrote on X in a since-deleted post. “And please take this down and please keep me out of your ‘banger’ deportation videos. When it comes to immigration my thoughts and heart are a lot more nuanced than this video allows. Bye!” Von added that he was worried for his safety. “What if someone attacks me tomorrow because they think I’m some final boss of [deportations] or somethin,” he said.
DHS took the Von video down while the Pokèmon one is still up, and Pokémon Co. International said “[o]ur company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property.”
This Democrat launched a PAC for “patriots”
A swing seat Democrat calls his political action committee the Patriot PAC.
Two-term Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) is U.S. Army veteran who represents a district in Hudson Valley that he won last year by 57%, outpacing former Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 11 points. He was profiled by GQ in January, and on Thursday, he launched the Patriot PAC.
The PAC, which Ryan hopes will raise more than $2 million, is planning to help Democrats with public service backgrounds like military or first responders, and it plans to endorse 50 candidates specifically in New York and 250 around the country in next year’s midterms, according to Politico.
“I really am worried and focused about the moment we’re in where there’s tremendous harm being done to my community, my district, my state and to my country,” Ryan told the outlet. “The only way I know how to stop that is to put forward the best people. Literally, these elections in 2025 are going to be critical, the midterms are going to be important to check a lot of the overreach and the harm being done.”
Have yourself a very FLOTUS Christmas
The first lady’s latest memorabilia line is perfect for Christmas in July. Or is it Independence Day in December?
First Lady Melania Trump on Thursday announced Celebrating America, a collection of patriotic, limited-edition Christmas ornaments to mark next year’s 250th anniversary of the founding of the country.
The collection includes a $90 brass “American Star” ornament, and everything else costs $75, including ornaments that show the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, and Mount Rushmore. Each comes with an optional “digital collectible.” Trump released her first Christmas ornament line in 2022.
“I am excited to continue this annual holiday tradition with the Celebrating America collection of ornaments,” Trump said in a statement to the Hill.
Have you seen this?
Why journalists are sounding off alarms about the Pentagon’s new rules for media access. The new policy says that Defense Department information “must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if unclassified.” Classified material faces even tighter restrictions. That level of control immediately alarmed journalists and their advocates. [Fast Company]
DOGE might be storing every American’s social security number on an insecure cloud server. The report, released by Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), cites numerous disclosures from whistleblowers, including one who said a worst-case scenario could involve having to re-issue SSNs to everyone in the country. [The Verge]
Gen Z’s new symbol of resistance: a cartoon Jolly Roger. Monkey D. Luffy is the protagonist of a long-running Japanese comic and animated television show called “One Piece.” Now, his distinctive pirate standard can be seen waving among the national flags, Free Palestine banners, and homemade signs that dot the crowds in a run of recent protests from Indonesia and Nepal to France and the U.K. [The Wall Street Journal]
We need more architects and fewer arsonists. “Nothing I say can unite us as a country. Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said, but he called on people to consider what they can do. “I’m desperately looking for more architects and fewer arsonists. Again, it’s so easy to burn down and tear down and we’ve got too much of that today.” [Whig by Hunter Schwarz]
