After backlash on social media and from President Donald Trump himself, Cracker Barrel said it’s scrapping its new logo. Wall Street is championing the reversal.

This comes just weeks after American Eagle doubled down on its controversial campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, an ad Trump praised. (Gap recently released a counter advertisement, featuring a diverse group of models clad in denim.) All of this shows what marketing has turned into in a particularly politically driven moment. 

Cracker Barrel announced it’s bringing back what it calls its “old timer” logo. You know, the one that features the guy with the barrel. It’s not every day a company walks back an expensive rebrand, said Kimberly Whitler, a marketing professor at the University of Virginia.

“The CEO literally admitted they made a mistake. That is rare,” she said.

It shows the growing influence of consumers, social media, shareholders, and now politicians. Cracker Barrel lost track of its core customers while trying to reach new ones, Whitler said.

“They’re trying to shift the target rather than expand the target,” she said.

The logo walkback may not signal a full retreat but more of a compromise, per Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern. He thinks the brand is still likely to follow through on changing its menu and dining room design.

“But by announcing this logo pullback, I think they’ve addressed a lot of the concern,” he said. “And they’ve certainly indicated that they’ve listened and they’ve heard the feedback.”

Consumers want to feel seen, Calkins said. And if executed well, this moment might actually help fire the brand’s comeback. 

“We are thinking more about Cracker Barrel than I think we’ve thought about Cracker Barrel in a very, very long time,” he said.

We live in an attention economy, Calkins noted. And right now, Cracker Barrel has everyone’s attention.