The CEO of the southern-style casual restaurant chain Cracker Barrel is stepping down less than a year after major MAGA figures lost their minds over the company’s brief logo redesign.
The company unveiled a new logo last summer that eliminated its distinctive old man sitting by a barrel, a design choice that CEO Julie Felss Masino said was supposed to make the chain more visible on highway billboards.
But members of the MAGA-verse, including Donald Trump Jr., blamed the move on “soulless” corporate branding—and Masino’s supposedly woke ideology.
After President Donald Trump weighed in, the company killed the new logo; dropped its commitments to LGBTQ+ Pride and diversity, equity, and inclusion; and halted plans to remodel some of its 660 locations.
It also, apparently, began searching for a new CEO.
According to a statement from the company, Masino is resigning effective Aug. 10 following a “comprehensive succession planning and searching process.”
The statement didn’t say when or why the search began. The Daily Beast has reached out to Cracker Barrel for comment.
Masino, who was hired as Cracker Barrel’s president and CEO in July 2023, will remain with the company in an advisory capacity until October to “support a smooth transition,” according to the company’s statement.
She’s being replaced by David Deno, who previously served as CEO for Bloomin’ Brands, which owns several casual dining chains including Outback Steakhouse.
After the MAGA logo maelstrom last summer, Masino was targeted by a long-time activist investor, but the company’s shareholders voted to retain her in November, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Tennessee-based restaurant chain had commissioned the new logo as part of a broader effort to regain relevancy and appeal to younger customers, not just retirees and families on road trips, Masino told investors in May 2024, as reported by Business Insider.
The campaign included upgrading the restaurant’s menu, experimenting with new restaurant layouts, and replacing the chain’s dark Americana décor with a less cluttered, more modern farmhouse aesthetic.
Just four stores were renovated, though, before MAGA’s pressure campaign brought the changes to an abrupt end.
Conservative outrages and calls for a boycott caused the company’s stock to plunge, erasing about $100 million in market value.
Trump chimed in on the controversy on his platform Truth Social, writing, “Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before. They got a Billion Dollars worth of free publicity if they play their cards right. Very tricky to do, but a great opportunity.”
Hours later, the company announced on X that, “We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain.”
Fans have speculated that the old-timer depicted is Herschel McCartney, who was the uncle of Cracker Barrel founder Dan Evins and served as a goodwill ambassador for the company when it was founded in the late 1960s.
But according to the company, the man is just a generic figure created by Nashville designer Bill Holley, who in 1977 sketched the image on a napkin with the goal of creating a feeling of nostalgia, the Today Show reported.
