How Duck Dynasty Once Caused A Cracker Barrel Scandal
The Robertson family from the reality TV show, "Duck Dynasty" first appeared on America's TV screens in 2012. The show centered around the heavily-bearded brood's family business, Duck Commander. The company got its start when family patriarch Phil Robertson began hand-crafting his own cedar duck calls, says ABC News. Although the original duck calls only netted Robertson $8,000 worth of sales the first year he began selling them, the Robertson family business is now worth millions of dollars, per ABC News.
The popular A&E series attracted a record-breaking 11.8 million viewers at its peak, as E! News reported, but it has also generated a fair amount of controversy. The Robertson clan was known for being staunch Evangelical Christians, and some of their most conservative views had the tendency to create some stir in the media, via Entertainment Weekly. The popular country-style restaurant chain Cracker Barrel just happened to get itself caught up in one of those sandals back in 2013.
Phil Robertson came under fire for his anti-LGBT views
In 2013, Cracker Barrel was carrying Duck Commander brand products in their gift shops nationwide, via Forbes. However, in the December 2013 issue of GQ Magazine, writer Drew Magary wrote a story on the popular Duck Dynasty clan that quickly stirred up some negative publicity. In the interview, Robertson shared his controversial views on homosexuality, which immediately sparked a fierce backlash.
As soon as the story was published, Robertson was heavily criticized by many people who were deeply offended by what they called his anti-LGBT views. In response, Cracker Barrel decided to pull some of the Duck Dynasty-branded items from their gift shop shelves. The company assured their customers on Facebook that they would "continue to offer Duck Commander products in our stores," but would be pulling "selected products which we were concerned might offend some of our guests while we evaluate the situation," as Forbes reported.
Cracker Barrel briefly removed some Duck Commander products from its gift shops
However, the Duck Dynasty merchandise didn't stay off of shelves for long. As soon as Cracker Barrel announced their decision to pull the products in the wake of Robertson's comments, they were inundated with messages, emails, and calls from fans criticizing the move, per Forbes. Predictably, quite a few fans of the show also took to social media to protest the culling of Duck Commander items, with many Cracker Barrel customers publicly threatening to boycott the restaurant if they went through with their decision, via Forbes.
Just one day later, Cracker Barrel reversed its decision. They went on to release a statement assuring their customers that they would put all Duck Dynasty products back in stores. "We apologize for offending you," the company wrote in a letter to customers, via HuffPost. Cracker Barrel added that "We respect all individual's right to express their beliefs. We certainly did not mean to have anyone think different. We sincerely hope you will continue to be part of our Cracker Barrel family." So while the initial controversy certainly stirred up some negative media attention, Cracker Barrel's flip-flopping views on the matter only made the scandal worse.