German Company Launches Viral Ad Campaign For Lift Used in Louvre Heist: Quiet as a Whisper'

"When you need to move fast is the brazen or brilliantdepending on your sense of proprietynew advertising tagline for the company Bocker, based in the German town of Werne, that debuted across Facebook and Instagram on Monday. The ad depicts the Agilo furniture elevator that the thieves used to enter a window at the Louvre, where they ransacked its Apollo Gallery for some $102 million worth of Napoleonic jewelry. The thieves fled with the loot on scooters, all within a shockingly efficient seven minutes."

"The marketing chief of Bocker, Julia Scharwatz, told the Guardian that she and her husband, the company's third-generation chief executive, Alexander Bocker, were shocked to see their device in a picture from the historic incident. Scharwatz told the Guardian that Bocker sold the elevator to a company in the Paris area that rents out such equipment. The thieves approached the company with a feigned interest in renting the device and then stole it during a demonstration."

"It became clear to us, oh my goodness, this is a reprehensible act and they've misused our device to do it, she said. But after it was apparent that no one had been hurt, we started making a few jokes and putting our heads together on slogans we found funny. She added that after the picture began to circulate online countless people our staff, business partners, clients got in touch with us and we thought, wow, we have to do something with this."

Bocker is a family-run firm in Werne, Germany that sells Agilo furniture elevators. One of its lifts appeared in photos of the Louvre jewel heist after thieves used the device to reach a first-floor balcony, ransack the Apollo Gallery and steal about $102 million of Napoleonic jewelry, fleeing on scooters within seven minutes. Bocker sold the elevator to a Paris-area rental company; thieves feigned interest and stole it during a demonstration. The company reported the theft to authorities. After seeing widespread circulation of the image, marketing chief Julia Scharwatz and CEO Alexander Bocker created a provocative advertising tagline that went viral.

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