The McDonald's Deluxe line was a series of sandwiches introduced in the early to mid 1990s and marketed by McDonald's with the intent of capturing the adult fast food consumer market, presented as a more sophisticated burger for adult tastes.[1] The sandwiches sold poorly and the entire line was discontinued on August 18, 2000. The Deluxe series was a marketing disaster and is now considered to be one of the most expensive flops in McDonald's history.[2][3]
History
The line was first introduced in 1991 with the McLean Deluxe; the Arch Deluxe was introduced in May 1996 and the others on September 27, 1996. Except for the McLean Deluxe, all sandwiches were developed by McDonald's executive chef Andrew Selvaggio.[4][5]
Advertising
McDonald's budgeted at $100–150 million (USD) for the introduction of the line and contracted the Minneapolis-based ad firm of Fallon McElligott to oversee the roll out of the project.[6] The original advertising for these products took the form of children criticizing the new adult oriented sandwiches and Ronald McDonald doing more adult themed things, such as going dancing at a nightclub or playing golf.[1]
Product variants
All sandwiches were served on a bakery style roll and featured better quality ingredients, such as whole leaf lettuce and sliced tomatoes.[4]
Burgers
- The McLean Deluxe was marketed as a healthy alternative to McDonald's regular menu. It was released in the United States in 1991. It had a reduced fat content compared to other McDonald's hamburgers. This was achieved through use of 91% lean beef and the addition of carrageenan to the meat. The McLean Deluxe was originally designed as a replacement of the McDLT.[8] Like the McDLT, and despite performing well in taste-tests, it did not sell well and was dropped from the menu in February 1996.
- The Arch Deluxe was another product to compete against the Burger King
See also
References
- Glenn Collins. Chief of McDonald's Defends Arch Deluxe to Franchisees the New York Times, 1996-09-19, retrieved 2008-01-15^
- HowStuffWorks "5 Failed McDonald's Menu Items" HowStuffWorks, 20 October 2008^
- Mark Kassof. Lessons from marketing flops.