New York —
A revealing detail emerged from Cracker Barrel’s announcement last week that CEO Julie Masino is stepping down: She’s leaving with company-funded security still in place from the public meltdown over Cracker Barrel’s rebrand last year.
Let’s pause there. The CEO of Cracker Barrel — Cracker Barrel, folks — needs extra security because an online mob went after the company for…a logo change.
If there was ever a sign of our rage-filled times, this is it. An executive nobody had heard of became a target of online attacks for the offense of trying to turn around a fading chicken and biscuits restaurant. In our way too online world, a typical corporate rebrand was whipped up into the radical left destroying a “beloved American aesthetic.”
Americans are angry about the economy and politics. But they feel they can’t control these huge forces. So anyone and anything can become a stand-in for their outrage, even if the target didn’t do anything to hurt any of us, like the random woman who got death threats after she was caught on cam with her boss at a Coldplay concert.
