Jessica Biel was born in Minnesota in 1982 and knew immediately she wanted to be an actor. In 2008, she told Harper’s Bazaar, “I had a mission as a kid. I don’t know how and I don’t know why, but I was just one of those kids, who begged and begged. ‘Take me to this commercial-acting class.’ ‘Take me to this play.’ ‘Take me to this audition.’ And my parents just supported it.”
Biel’s persistence made its way to television screens across America when she starred in a commercial for McDonald’s new Arch Deluxe burger, one of her first appearances. In the 30-second ad, she flatters her parents with over-the-top praises while her sister rolls her eyes in the background. Biel then pivots to her real mission: inspiring a family trip to the fast-food chain to try the Arch Deluxe.
The quarter-pound cheeseburger with veggies, dijonnaise, and optional bacon was part of a 1990s effort by the fast-food giant to make its menu more appealing to adults and was marketed as “the burger with the grown-up taste.” Despite McDonald’s spending the most ever on a fast-food marketing campaign, the Arch Deluxe went down in history as one of the worst product flops ever.
Economist John List discussed the Arch Deluxe in his 2022 best-selling book, *The Voltage Effect*, and in an NPR interview called the burger “a deluxe failure.” He pointed out that members of the focus groups on whom McDonald’s gauged the potential market for deluxe sandwiches were a self-selected bunch “who is either crazy about McDonald’s or loves all kinds of burgers or loves to try new things.” He noted that most customers would prefer one of the chain’s tried-and-true favorites over a more experimental concoction, and went on to fault McDonald’s decision-makers for making fairly common mistakes.
The Arch Deluxe was such a legendary disappointment that it earned a place in the Museum of Failure, a traveling exhibit of more than 100 failed products. The museum features products from a wide array of industries, including a frozen lasagna from toothpaste giant Colgate.
Fortunately for Jessica Biel, the poor performance of the Arch Deluxe had zero negative effect on her career going forward. She made her feature film debut in the 1997 drama *Ulee’s Gold* and kept busy making commercials and music videos while she built her filmography.
While still a teenager, Biel starred as Mary on the family-friendly drama *7th Heaven*, appearing in 134 of the series’ 234 episodes between 1996 and 2006. She also appeared in the 2003 reboot of *The Texas Chainsaw Massacre* and the 2012 remake of *Total Recall.* She was nominated for an Emmy in 2018 for her work on *The Sinner* and most recently starred as Chloe Taylor in the Amazon series *The Better Sister* alongside Elizabeth Banks.
Biel has been married to singer and actor Justin Timberlake for over a decade, and the superstar couple have two children together. Despite the fact that Timberlake has also been paid to endorse McDonald’s products, Biel won’t take their kids to the fast-food joint.
In August of 2025, she told AOL, “I just feel like I don’t know what’s going on with [the] quality of that food. Let’s go have a great burger and fries at a fancy place. I’d rather pay more for you to have something fancy than something like that.”
For his own part, Timberlake now regrets contributing to the chain’s “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle, even though he turned it into a hit song in Europe.
https://www.looper.com/2013463/jessica-biel-star-mcdonalds-ads-failed-arch-deluxe/
