Bernard Arnault's 'thank you' open letter in response to a critical investigative series is a masterclass in PR: by being non-defensive, humorous, and calm, he converted a negative dissection into a likable, self-flattering impression.

17:38this out. So, I saw this from Lulu I don't know how you Lulu Chang. I don't know how you say her last name. She's Survey. She's like the kind of go direct founder. She She She's like she was doing PR at Anduril, and now she has her own fund and whatnot. >> Is she the one who has the handle where it's like, here's how you should and

17:55should not address like PR issues? >> Yeah, yeah. She's just like constantly giving founders like advice. And her her philosophy is go direct philosophy. So, anyways, check this out. So, the backstory is that Bernard Arnault, who you know probably better than I do. He's the the titan behind um the luxury conglomerate LVMH. >> And every once in a while, he's the richest man in the world. >> Yeah, he he's kind of yeah, he floats,

18:21you know, between number one and four in the richest men in the world. And he writes this post and it's just titled merci, right? Thank you in French. And he basically says So, so what happened was this publication in France did this like year-long kind of sort of exposé on his family. And they tried to make it as like juicy as possible. So, they dropped a six-part investigative series called

18:49The Empire of Bernard Arnault. And it was talking about how it basically paints him as the last royal dynasty of France. And it describes like tension between his second wife and his son-in-law. And how their Sunday family dinners are like, you know, palace intrigue type of thing. And how they're, you know, they're trying to figure out the you know, the five heirs or the five kids are sort of jockeying for position

19:11cuz he's he's now close to 80 I think of who's going to succeed you know it's like basically succession but for real life. And so he so they they dropped this whole series and he goes and he goes here's a three three-page open letter that he he basically posts and I just want to read you a little bit of this so he goes thank you. That's how he starts

19:31it. Instead of being defensive he just starts with thank you. He goes it seems I am the head of quote the last royal family of France. I'm reading this between two cups of tea and my children who were alerted to this over WhatsApp um asked me if they should now curtsy in my presence and I told them hello sir would be would be sufficient. They burst out laughing

19:52um and I you know this has just been a wonderful week and it basically says it seems like Le Monde has decided to roll out the heavy artillery six months of investigation two full-time journalists blah blah blah. He basically like paints them as absolute overkill for what they were trying to do. And it this deserves a word and that word shall be thank you. You know I

20:14haven't been granted this treatment since I took over you know the company in 1984 and at that time they called me the Terminator but I far prefer the last royal family it's far more elegant and really good for sales at Dior. Then he continues on and he basically says um uh he goes he goes on and he goes apparently I'm the whisperer into the ear of every president. Well, I plead