For decades Bernard Arnault built luxury on distance: few interviews, controlled appearances, no need to argue with newspapers on social media. At 77, the chairman of LVMH has decided to try the clapback.
On 26 July, a three-page letter titled «Merci» appeared on the group's press account. It was his response to a six-part investigation in which Le Monde chronicled his empire, his relationships with politicians, his influence over the media, and the competition among his five children called upon to lead the family's various companies.
Arnault ironically thanked the newspaper for describing him as the head of the «last royal family of France». In the eighties, he recalled, they called him the Terminator; the new nickname, he noted, strikes him as at least more elegant. He then rejected the portrait of a dynastic war, calling his wife and children «all present, all available, all united».
The most sarcastic passage concerns the press. Le Monde had reconstructed the way Arnault intervenes in the titles owned by his group, among them Les Echos, Le Parisien, Paris Match and Radio Classique. He hit back by pointing out that the investigation was published by a newspaper whose shareholders include Xavier Niel, partner of Delphine Arnault. He then asked, feigning confusion, for a lesson in «the geometry of French editorial independence».
The letter closes with an invitation to the two journalists to have a drink at the Fondation Louis Vuitton and a compliment to Le Monde's crossword puzzles. The following day Arnault opened a personal account on X and, in his first post, amplified his response, saying he was struck by the messages of support he had received.
This is not merely an irritated reply. It is a change of strategy for a man accustomed to controlling the image of Louis Vuitton, Dior and dozens of other brands without turning himself into an online persona. After managing silence as a luxury asset for forty years, Bernard Arnault has discovered that sarcasm, too, can become corporate communications.
