Cracker Barrel's embrace of 'woke' culture predates controversial rebranding

Before a rebranded logo and modernized stores generated significant public backlash this month, Cracker Barrel embraced gender and racial diversity groups in its workforce and gave support to a nonprofit that provides resources for illegal immigrants. 

The Nashville, Tennessee-based restaurant company’s stock price has dropped nearly six points since an announcement last week that it would implement a design overhaul, featuring a redesigned logo without its classic symbols and a new restaurant interior that removed trademark American artifacts used as wall decorations and country-style wooden furniture. CBS News reported that the stock hit represented a loss to shareholders of almost $100 million in market capital.

The decision elicited a public outcry, primarily from conservatives, who criticized the company for going “woke.” The company’s stores are found all over the United States, but are often located in areas with greater concentrations of Republican voters. 

The national chain joins a growing group of major companies that embraced “woke” framing that have faced a financial price, including Target and Bud Light in the U.S. and Jaguar LandRover in Europe.

The restaurant company defended its changes on Monday in response to the building pressure against the move, but did not back down from any of the changes coming to its stores around the country. 

“We’re truly grateful for your heartfelt voices. You’ve also shown us that we could’ve done a better job sharing who we are and who we’ll always be,” Cracker Barrel wrote in a statement posted to social media on Monday. “What has not changed, and will never change, are the values this company was built on when Cracker Barrel first opened in 1969: hard work, family, scratch-cooked food made with care.” 

However, the company’s workforce policies, charitable activities, and board membership suggest it embraced “woke” culture and partisan values years before the current rebranding. 

Affinity groups: "Culture and Belonging"

The company touts several “Business Resource Groups” which provide resources to employees based on a specific identity or status, a common Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion practice. These groups include Be Bold, for “Black Leaders,” HOLA for Hispanic and Latino employees, the LGBTQ+ Alliance, and the Neurodiverse Collective. 

The company describes these groups as “voluntary, employee-led organizations” that form part of Cracker Barrel’s “Culture & Belonging” policy. 

"Supporting Home Office and Field employees to bring their whole selves to work while strengthening Cracker Barrel's relationship to the LGBTQ+ community,” the description of the LGBTQ+ Alliance states. 

The black and Hispanic groups are both described in similar terms, to foster a “diverse community” and to “create a culture of inclusivity and awareness through community outreach.” 

The employee who started the LGBTQ+ Alliance at the company recently wrote that “For more than ten years of my time at Cracker Barrel, I had an emphasis on Diversity & Inclusion, especially with LGBTQ workplace inclusion.” 

“Our group became relentless in marketing, actually marketing maniacs!” the employee, Steve Smotherman, wrote. He described how the affinity group manufactured LGBTQ+ themed merchandise for its employees and eventually designed the rainbow-colored rocking chair that was the subject of backlash in 2023. 

Support for immigration services 

The company’s support for liberal culture extends beyond its own employees. Cracker Barrel is a supporter of Conexión Américas, a nonprofit in central Tennessee that supports Latino immigrants in the region, both legal and illegal. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. is listed as a corporate supporter of the nonprofit, according to the group’s website. 

Conexión Américas provides information and resource hub for immigrants in the region, including for legal representation, organizing groups, and how to assess disinformation, according to the website. 

The group also partnered with Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell and the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee on the “Belonging Fund” which launched the day after the beginning of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in the city. What originally started as a partnership to provide child care and food resources to families affected by ICE arrests, it expanded to eventually begin providing resources for legal aid to immigrants. 

Board Members' DEI history

Gilbert Davila, who has served on Cracker Barrel’s board since July 2020 and ranks among its largest individual shareholders, has a long career centered on DEI initiatives and multicultural marketing. 

As president and CEO of DMI Consulting—a firm he founded in 2010—he specializes in embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into corporate strategy. His biographical page on the Cracker Barrel website describes DMI as “a leading multicultural marketing, diversity & inclusion and strategy firm in the United States.”   

DMI counts several American giants as clients, such as Google, Coca-Cola and American Express. 

Davila is also a cofounder of the Alliance for Inclusive and Cultural Marketing, a subunit of the Association of National Advertisers. Before launching DMI, Davila held leadership positions overseeing global diversity and multicultural market development at The Walt Disney Company (2003–2010), and earlier worked in significant marketing roles at Sears and Coca-Cola. He’s also a co–founder and director of the Association of National Advertisers’ Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing, the New York Post reported. 

Other companies went woke, paid price

Cracker Barrel is not the first company to face significant backlash for embracing “woke” policy or rhetoric. 

Target—the American retail store—faced criticism for selling LGBT-themed products for children, including clothing, books, and dog toys in 2023. The media attention, threats to boycott – and even a rap song knocking the Minneapolis-based retailers merchandising ahead of Pride Month – resulted in Target's stock shares plummeting, Just the News reported. 

Earlier that same year, Bud Light and its parent company InBev faced backlash for entering into a paid partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Customers learned about the deal when Mulvaney posted a picture on social media in April 2023 of a can of Bud Light with the influencer's picture on it, along with a message celebrating the one-year anniversary of Mulvaney being a trans-woman, Just the News reported. 

A boycott of the number one beer company ensued, from which it has still not recovered. Bud Light, which was then the most popular beer brand in the United States, was subsequently dethroned by Modelo. Now, analysts say the company will likely never recover its original sales volume. 

More recently, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC committed what some called marketing suicide after a rebranding that saw the iconic British luxury sports-car maker ditch its historic roots. 

Once known as the favored car of glamorous "cool" superstars like Steve McQueen and Princess Diana, the company bewildered the car industry last year by rebranding to what Fox Business called "androgynous models in brightly colored, over-the-top outfits, including one man wearing a dress, along with other slogans such as "create exuberant," "live vivid," "delete ordinary" and "break moulds." The rebrand never once showed an automobile. 

The Auto Wire reported that after the rebranding, as of April 2025, only 49 Jaguars were sold on the entire European continent. Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Mardell announced that he would be stepping down from his leadership role after the marketing disaster, according to Reuters.