German company launches advertising campaign for elevator used in Louvre robbery

A family-run German company has been in the media spotlight this week for a marketing campaign featuring the now world-famous furniture lift used in a Louvre jewelry heist.

“When you need to move fast” is the new advertising slogan for Böcker, a company based in the German town of Werna, which debuts on Facebook and Instagram on Monday. It’s either cheeky or brilliant – depending on your sense of etiquette.

The ad depicts thieves using an Agilo furniture elevator to gain access to the windows of the Louvre, ransacking the Apollo Gallery and stealing an estimated $102 million worth of Napoleon jewels. The thief escaped with the stolen goods on a scooter, and the whole process took only seven minutes, which was surprisingly efficient.

A photo of Burke’s elevator reaching the museum’s first-floor balcony, with a police car at his feet, was widely published in media around the world. Julia Scharwatz, head of marketing at Böcker, tells us The Guardian She and her husband Alexander Böcker, the company’s third-generation CEO, were “shocked” when they saw their equipment in photos from the historical event.

Sharvac told guardian Bock sold the elevator to a Paris-area company that rented out such equipment. The thieves approached the company by pretending to be interested in renting the device, then stole it during a demonstration. The company reported the theft to authorities.

“It’s clear to us that, gosh, this is reprehensible behavior and they misused our equipment to do this,” she said. “But after we made sure no one was hurt, we started joking around and worked together to come up with slogans that we thought were funny.”

She added that after the photo started circulating online, “tons of people — our employees, business partners, customers — contacted us and we thought, wow, we have to do something about this.” A day later, the slogan appeared on the Internet.

“I thought it would go viral, but it’s extraordinary that it went viral. Our Instagram posts usually get 15-20,000 people and now we’ve reached 1.7 million people. It’s crazy,” Scharwatz said. She said the reaction had been mostly positive, although at least one Facebook user called the ad campaign “tasteless”, adding: “The French are shocked and saddened, while a German company is making fun of it and using it in an ad. Black humor…”

With no suspects arrested and eight French crown jewels still missing, the robbery has become a public crisis for the Louvre and for French President Emmanuel Macron, whose government narrowly survived a vote of no confidence.

Louvre director Laurence Dekar told the French Senate on Wednesday that the robbery exposed “weaknesses” in the museum’s security. She added that she submitted her resignation to Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who did not accept the offer.