Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. Everything seemed better in the past and businesses that catered to nostalgia have gained, in some minds, mythical status (and sub-mythical sales) while others are condemned for not having the logo or motif from their childhood. In the case of many restaurants, particularly fast food restaurants, the reason is simple: Fewer and fewer people are dining in and even fewer are going for some ambience; people are increasingly just picking up the food via drive through or just ordering in via an “app” like Door Dash or Uber Eats. When that happens, companies optimize their logo to be readily discernable on a small phone app rather than in some large sign that in many places is impracticable, or even illegal. Such was the case with the chain restaurant Cracker Barrel, but this time with culture war cringe.
The replacement of the older, more complex sign and logo with a simpler one caused an online apoplectic fit, with one politician even comparing this with an attack on Christianity due to his finding Jesus in their parking lot (allegedly). Some even went to far as to call it “woke”.
Woke? As much as one might dispise the design, there was nothing particularly “woke” aobut it. It didn’t even devolve into the “globohomo” corporate design we are seeing more of. What we ‘ve seen is nothing short of exploitation of nostalgia for political point scoring. Why would a politician or political entity complain, aside from virtue signaling. What is the government supposed to do? Regulate logos so they conform to some thin veneer of cultural aesthetics?
It’s not like this is going to fix a real problem like the debt or anything.
