Cracker Barrel, meet New Coke.
Way, way back in the days of dinosaurs, when “woke” meant only the past tense of “wake,” Coca-Cola in 1985 unveiled a new formula of the then nearly century old soft drink. The story behind the scenes was that the brand had been losing market share to Pepsi and diet drinks, and this was a way to get it back.
Big mistake.
The public was horrified — especially, you guessed it, in the South, where the brand originated — and the company registered 40,000 calls expressing anger and disappointment. Within three months, the company reintroduced its old flavor as Coca-Cola Classic, renamed New Coke as Coke II in 1990 and dropped the drink altogether in 2002.
Cracker Barrel, in the days when “woke” now means something more than the past tense of “wake,” didn’t take quite as long to realize it had made a serious marketing error. It initially declared it was dropping its countrified but quaint wall clutter for a cleaner look, then decided it would give its logo a cleaner look. Out with the barrel. Out with the man (“Uncle Herschel,” a real man and the real uncle of company founder Danny Evins). Out with the description “Old Country Store.”