How The Creator Of McDonald's Most Expensive Failure Really Feels

These days, it seems as if you truly can’t escape all the new items being released at McDonald’s. Most of the new menu items that the fast-food giant puts out do pretty well, but there was one item in the ‘90s that failed miserably.

The item in question is the Arch Deluxe, which was McDonald’s attempt to create a more “sophisticated” burger that would appeal to adults. The crisp iceberg lettuce, stone-ground mustard sauce, and soft potato roll gave it a more gourmet taste than most of their menu, so what went wrong?

Marketing91 did a case study and found the issue was that McDonald’s failed to recognize its own brand image, because not many people go to the restaurant for sophistication. The burger’s creator, Andrew Selvaggio, stated, “It was sort of hard working on a product so long and [to] see it not go anywhere. I learned not to get too attached.”