The evils and abusive nature of modern marketing

All the radio news and online talk shows and social media, for the last couple of days, have been talking all about the new Cracker Barrel logo. It took a day or two for most observers to notice it is not just their logo, but their entire image, inside and outside their iconic restaurants and stores.

We’ll chip our two cents in on the changes, first. With the revelation that West River of South Dakota and the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming don’t have one of their locations. But when traveling in areas where such do exist (business or family travel), we have enjoyed eating and browsing – and sometimes actually shopping! – at a Cracker Barrel.

They dropped the cute little woodcut style picture of an old guy in the rocking chair from their symbol, leaving just the words “Cracker Barrel” – same font even. Okay, it is their business. But apparently they paid millions of dollars for this part of the makeover. Funny, our poor editor once did something similar for the logo and signs on our congregation’s meetinghouse. It took him about two or three hours, plus discussion time. Say eight hours all together (we love to talk!). He’s an engineer, he only charges about $100/hour (including paying for overhead: NOT take home or anything close!) for that kind of work. May we suggest that Cracker Barrel got ripped off? Stupid is as stupid does.

Now, onto the serious parts of the makeover. Based on videos online, both of the “old” and the “new” versions? Yuck. Double yuck.

Sure, the old look with rocking chairs and the walls and dividers in the restaurant and store filled with all kinds of stuff was traditional and tacky to many people. (Who still looked and grinned. And ordered dessert.) Classic American chauvinism and kitsch. But the very young and the very old love it: they drag their parents (or their children and grandchildren) in to eat. And usually, the food was good, or at least decent. Good ole Southron food and served in that style. And certainly able to compete with the other big chains: Denny’s and Country Kitchen, and even the “upscale places” like Outback and Olive Garden: each in their own food niche. And the decor set it off, and combined nostalia as well as a sense of heritage. Sure, there are many places that have better decor and far better food. But successfully appealing both to Americans and to foreign visitors and tourists. And even border jumpers, based on what we’ve seen.

But that is all out the window – which also may be disappearing. The marketing mavens, for the hundreds of millions of dollars the company shelled out, have ensured that the company will find it hard to replace those dollars. Based on polls much of the customer base of Cracker Barrel is making both thumbs down. They’ll find some other place to eat on the road: some may even go back to packing their own travel food! Some compared it to another Bud Lite marketing debacle.

Certainly the new decor smells (and tastes?) like progressive, Woke and new-age marketing and styles. Regimented, unwelcoming, sterile, and just plain blah. Like Soviet-style apartment complexes, or Federal-style brutalist architecture. Uggh. Double uggh.

We are reminded of a remodel of a McDonalds down in Southwest Colorado five or six years ago. An 1990s style McDs, it was comfortable, friendly (for adults and kids), and a great place to meet friends or have a quick meeting (despite the quality of the food, or lack thereof. At least the sodas and the shakes were fine. Don’t know about the coffee – we don’t drink any here at TPOL.

But it was replaced with a sterile, functional (by certain opinions of some efficiency experts) that made sure you’d clear out quickly and try NOT to have to eat or meet in the restaurant: unfriendly and uncompromising, and decidedly uncomfortable. The Cracker Barrel remake looks like that.

Which brings us to the main point of this screed: for decades, maybe centuries, marketing and advertising industry has made a living fleecing not just the general public (on behalf of their clients), but their clients as well. Yes, the Bud Lite disaster. But older folks will remember “New Coke” and a whole list of marketing fiascos that have cost American, Brit, and European companies billions in lost customers – and those customers every cent of those billions.

And that doesn’t even count the political marketing and advertising. Those nightmares have cost trillions in treasure and millions in human lives. Even when the consumers and the companies are not “sold a bill of goods” and “ripped-off” by the marketing maniacs, they have much, much better things to do.

Supposedly the internet, worldwide web, and social media let us work around (or ignore) the idiots. All it seems to have done is introduce more venues to rip us off, time and time again. Just as modern electronics can be used to try and rip people off, as a dozen robo-calls and callers with Pakistani accents a day demonstrate.

Government pretends but really does little to corral this: the revenue is too lucrative, and the advertising monsters provide too much support to government control.

Don’t buy their lies. And don’t let them successfully beg for their lives!

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Source: https://freedombunker.com/2025/08/21/the-evils-and-abusive-nature-of-modern-marketing/