Dan White: Taylor & Selena are contemporary icons!
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Dan White, President/McDonald's Division North America at The Coca-Cola Co. – and who thus leads one of the firm's largest internal divisions – discussed this subject at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2016.
"In some ways, inside of our own companies, I feel as if we're playing a massive game of catch up," said White.
"We're catching up with what consumers want, and need, and they're getting from other places in their lives – and they are getting predominantly from phones, computers, and places where they're able to customise their own experiences," he added. "So we're trying on a bunch of things on for size."
"Contemporary icons change all the time. The difference between them is watching the Rolling Stones on stage and saying you want those people to sing it exactly how it was sung before, and don't change it," said White.
"Now when you go and see Taylor Swift or Selena Gomez – contemporary icons – they are always changing. In fact, they have to change to keep up.
"So, maybe we just don't have it right when we think about what the brand standards are around classic icons, and we have to evolve to meet today's consumers. That's probably where we're at, and that's the inflection point where brands and people really get twisted around."
