McDonald's introduced the Arch Deluxe as a premium burger brand in 1996.
The Arch Deluxe was designed to attract adults with a more upscale positioning than McDonald's traditional flagship products. Its launch used extensive advertising and emphasized a special sauce, a potato-flour bun, and ingredients presented as more sophisticated.
The product became one of McDonald's most prominent examples of branding aimed at changing perceptions of the chain. Instead of focusing mainly on children and families, the campaign tried to make the restaurant appear more appealing to adult customers.
Despite the large promotional effort, the Arch Deluxe was not a lasting success and was eventually discontinued. Its history is often used as a lesson in the difficulty of making a mass-market brand appear premium without losing its established identity.