The NRA Is in Desperate Need of a Rebrand
Photo Credit: An example of NRA branding at the Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago, May 21, 2018. Skift Table
Skift Take
It's not just the name... but we'll volunteer that changing that immediately would be a great start.
Why is a restaurant news site running a story about the NRA? Perhaps you have the wrong idea.
And that's the point.
This is not about the National Rifle Association.
The National Restaurant Association has been around for nearly a century. Its roots go back to 1917, when the newly-formed Kansas City Restaurant Association organized a boycott over the price of eggs. In 1919, the group expanded to represent 43,000 restaurants nationwide.
Flash forward a hundred years: The NRA's Restaurant Show, which just wrapped up its 99th edition in Chicago yesterday, brought in over 65,000 attendees and exhibitors this year (including us).
It has a legacy, it's big, and it serves its members relatively well.
But it can't keep doing so with a name that is synonymous with one of the most polarizing trade groups on the planet — among both the Restaurant Association's members and the general public.
During one of the more recent school shootings in the United States (which one we're not sure, it
