Just as Generation Z is scraping the “millennial grey” paint off the natural wood in their homes, Cracker Barrel gave itself the sad beige makeover nobody asked for.

Nearly every McDonald’s has received this makeover in the last decade. While style and decor changes across generations are normal, the leap from what the kids of the 1990s grew up with to what they created once they became adults is nothing short of an architectural whiplash. The garish, yet welcoming, tones of bright yellow and red have been replaced with various shades of grey, while the iconic golden arches are swapped for sharp angles on the fast-food chain’s buildings.

The trend isn’t just obvious in restaurant design. Baby toys are now made with the most ambiguous, neutral colors possible. While playing with a trendy stacking toy with my toddler, I reflected that I didn’t know how I would teach him his colors based on that toy, like I had learned them when I was little. Little kids are learning their colors via taupe, beige, ecru, and almond before red, blue, green, yellow, and orange.

True, it’s not worth being angry about. Even I can admit that the change in how toys are designed is a direct result of changing customer choices!

Yet the infamous Cracker Barrel makeover hit a major nerve in the culture wars. This happened not only because Cracker Barrel’s new CEO has voiced support for “woke” causes, but because her changes rejected the very people who love the restaurant. Cracker Barrel’s customer base doesn’t want grey minimalism.

In this sense the rebrand was similar to other, more directly political brand moves, such as when Bud Light – a brand whose revenue rests largely on the purchases of Republicans – chose to hire a flamboyant man in a dress and fake lashes to advertise for them. The fact that Cracker Barrel’s rebrand became so political that even the official Democrat Twitter account weighed in shouldn’t surprise anyone who has paid attention to the collective exhaustion we all feel at beloved brands bending over backwards to fit into a single mold, regardless of their distinct customer bases.

In the case of Cracker Barrel, the restaurant’s classic aesthetic was reminiscent of the rural South. The old logo that everyone was furious to see nixed featured a man, and an elderly one at that. The decor felt like you were back in your grandma’s very cluttered kitchen. Menu items referred to “farm cookin’” and “old style” items. The dissolution of this aesthetic for that of a city-dwelling, early-30s yuppie told the customers who enjoyed, or even related to, this style that it wasn’t important or useful anymore.

Anger over colors seems like a complete waste of time, but looking closer, our national desaturation is a symptom of a larger issue.

Many chains were making a bet around 2016-2017 that these desaturation makeovers would attract young adult customers looking for a certain trendy and refined “experience.” Yet this change has come with several unwelcome ones, including poor service, glitchy ordering kiosks, low quality food, and most of all a loss of personality and distinction in our American food chains. Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Burger King are essentially the same restaurant.

The vanishing attraction of greasy fast-food burgers may seem inconsequential or even welcome, yet it is also a symptom of a nation that can’t innovate or create beyond following a (hopefully) fleeting trend.

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The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

Image Credit: Flickr-Michael Martin, CC BY-SA 2.0