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Cracker Barrel Outrage Was Almost Certainly Driven by Bots, Researchers Say (gizmodo.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 133 points 1 year ago (20 children)

Nah pretty much everyone was in agreement that the new logo was worse, what do you me-

a sample of 52,000 posts made on X

Ah yes, the defunct site that is mostly bots so that Muskrat can continue to earn ad revenue NaziBucks

similar conversations were happening on the alt-tech platforms like Donald Trump’s Truth Social, Twitter knock-offs Gettr and Gab

Ah yes, the sites that use amplification bots to keep their users riled up and strengthen the echo chamber

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  • [+] 45 points 1 year ago* (4 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

    I thought it was a stupid and pointless business move or potentially a publicity stunt. And I’ll admit I’d be slightly bummed to walk into Cracker Barrel sit down and not see the peg game or all the weird old country store bullshit because nostalgias a bitch. But like it’s not even good southern cooking, the only things good there were fried chicken livers and breakfast food. The former can be found in any southern town with much higher quality and Waffle House exists and is generally really close to most Cracker Barrel’s for the latter.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Cracker Barrel was usually cleaner than Waffle House, though, if that’s important to you while on road trips

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Where is that true, before Covid I could get out of waho for under 13 no problem with a drink? Crackers Barrerl was always at least 20

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Cleaner, not cheaper. Waffle House has always been cheaper. If you’re on a road trip with kids it’s nicer to feel reasonably confident you’re taking them into clean restrooms.

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  • [–] 21 points 1 year ago* (14 children)

    Nah pretty much everyone was in agreement that the new logo was worse, what do you me-

    Right? I'm definitely not right wing in any way shape or form, but I enjoy Cracker Barrel and the atmosphere once in a while. The logo doesn't need to be updated to the bland bullshit modern marketers want to force just so they can make millions in bullshit consulting fees. There is no way in hell the new logo was better than the old one to represent the company, but someone got paid a ton of money to convince them that it was a good decision clearly without any market research to back it up. A blind idiot could tell that logo was a worse choice objectively without any politics involved.

    Were there bots? Oh, for sure. But they weren't the reason for the backlash, the shit decision was the reason it was a thing at all.

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  • [–] 29 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    I still suspect the entire thing was a marketing ploy. That they had no intention of ACTUALLY changing the logo. They just wanted people to push back so they could get in the news. I wouldn’t be surprised if the marketing firm that made the logo also started the backlash.

    I suspect the same is true about American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ad.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    Didn't IHOP do something similar by claiming that they were going to change their name to IHOB?

    "IHOb also issued a press release about the change and still used the original "IHOP" in its footer, suggesting the switch was a temporary promotion."

    Seems so. Source.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    That is entirely possible. Make a shitty logo you never intend to actually use widely and use the backlash as basically free publicity.

    It makes sense, and fits with modern society's social media dynamics.

    But I refuse to give the marketing fucks that sort of recognition. It's more likely they just fucked up because they get paid either way and simple logos are the hot trend right now, and the corporate suits went with the marketing consultants blindly, as most of them usually do.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    People have been suggesting this as a strategy at least since New Coke debuted. We can’t always definitively say that was actually the plan, but sometimes we can like with IHOP.

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  • [–] [S] 0 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Why did you lose sleep over it?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Why do you assume that having an opinion about something means I was solely invested in it? Because clearly having an actual opinion on something must mean I'm making it my entire reason for doing things in my life. Of course.

    Is that how you live your life? Only able to focus on one current event at a time? If so that's extremely depressing. But being unable to think about more than one thing at a time would explain a lot about why people are so easily manipulated by this sort of shit in the first place.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Are we not allowed to talk about an interesting intersection of advertising and politics?

    You know this is a discussion board, right? If you didn't want to discuss, why are you posting?

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