In the short span of a few late summer days, the outsized power and influence of social media has been showcased in astonishing and alarming form.

A tale of two rebrands

On Aug. 19, Cracker Barrel unexpectedly unveiled a new minimalist logo. Gone was the nostalgic image of "Uncle Herschel" in overalls sitting next to an old-fashioned wooden barrel. In its place was a new logo with brown, text-only wording centered in a hexagonal field of gold.

The social-media backlash was immediate, and negative.

In one day, the change sparked more than 558,000 posts (one post was viewed 16 million times) and Cracker Barrel's stock value dropped by nearly $100 million. Within a week, that loss had ballooned to more than $140 million.

Surveys showed three out of four consumers preferred the old logo t

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