The influencer Chiara Ferragni (36 years old, Cremona) has been at the center of a media storm since December. It all started when she received a fine of one million euros for “incorrect commercial practices” in a controversial supposedly charitable campaign in collaboration with a Christmas candy brand. The advertising suggested an apparent fundraising for a children's hospital, but this did not actually exist. The sanction had enormous media coverage and even the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, commented on it. The Italian, who likes to define herself as a businesswoman and entrepreneur, apologized in a video and announced that she would donate the million euros she had pocketed from the sales to a medical center in Turin. But this gesture did not help him much. In recent weeks, she has witnessed a stampede of sponsors and followers and even the Government has approved a rule, known as the Ferragni law, to regulate profiles on social networks with more than one million followers with the aim of preventing scams and misleading advertising and protecting the integrity of minors.
Furthermore, the well-known influencer —one of the first in the world to be nicknamed as such— is being investigated by the prosecutor's office for an alleged crime of aggravated fraud. Apart from the Christmas sweet campaign, due to the sales of some chocolate Easter eggs and a doll for children that also suggested a solidarity campaign to raise funds against cyberbullying and homophobia.
One of the brands that has decided to separate itself from Chiara Ferragni is Coca-Cola, which had even filmed an advertisement with her in December, which should have been released these days. The emblematic soft drink company has decided to take a step back after the scandal and the resulting damage to its image and has announced that it will not broadcast the advertising. “We have worked with Chiara in Italy in 2023, there was even some filming in December. At the moment, we do not plan to use this content,” the company declared to the newspaper. The Republic.
At the end of the year, Safilo, a high-end Italian eyewear company, also announced that it had discontinued its collaboration with Ferragni. The stationery company Cartiere Paolo Pigna is another of those that has chosen to break commercial relations with the influencer, with whom it had been collaborating since 2021. The company has defended that it adopted this decision “in compliance with its own company code of ethics, which excludes collaboration with third parties sanctioned by the competent authorities for behavior contrary to ethics, propriety and the law.” . Ferragni, through its companies, has appealed the fine in court and has announced that it will undertake “similar protection initiatives against those who act against existing collaboration contracts.” Of course, he still maintains powerful business relationships with big brands, such as Monnalisa, with which he has an agreement to create children's clothing and tracksuits, and is also the image of Pantene, Arval Cosmetici and Nespresso, among others.
To the deterioration of the prestige of the influencer The economic damage is added to his multimillion-dollar empire, which includes three companies valued around 100 million euros. Quantifying the losses is complicated, because beyond the interrupted collaborations is the fact that their activity on social networks, one of their great sources of income, has been drastically reduced. The Italian is no longer spreading sponsored posts on your Instagramfor which he used to charge tens of thousands of euros.
After the publication of the video apologizing, and after several weeks of unprecedented silence, Ferragni returned to Instagram a month ago, the social network that elevated her and where she used to broadcast her luxurious life daily. Of course, she has considerably reduced the number of publications and has restricted user comments to avoid the torrent of disqualifications and negative messages that she received when the fine became known. In the first stories published on this social network after the scandal, Ferragni told her followers (who, despite the recent scandal, are still 29.3 million) that she missed them. The influencer She has lost just over 200,000 followers, a tiny percentage of her community but, for her, who until now had always been on a constant rise, this is the biggest drop since she emerged on the networks. She has thanked the people who have been close to her in recent weeks and also those who “have expressed their opinion, even negative, in a calm and constructive tone, because in life there is always time to confront, reflect and return to begin”. Her words could be the first step in a long process to clean up her image, which should serve to maintain her influence on her public and calm the companies with which she still does business.
For one influencer Like her, reputation is a primary element, the key to her activities and profits. Ferragni needs to demonstrate that she remains a reliable collaborator and a credible image if she wants to keep her million-dollar contracts. To do this, as local media point out, she has put herself in the hands of a communications company specialized in image crisis management, Community Reputation Advisers. This company has managed reputation crises such as the fraudulent bankruptcy of the dairy company Parmalat and has also worked with companies such as Standard & Poor's, the Juventus football club in Turin or Atlantia, due to the collapse of the Morandi bridge in Genoa.
In Ferragni's case, the strategy is complex. First there was an unusual period of total silence. Then came the phrase “I've missed you” to try to reengage his followers and, then, the photos of his two children, his mother and his two sisters, all well known thanks to their social networks and the two seasons of reality family on Prime Video, The Ferragnez. But there is an absence. In his recent publications there is no trace, neither in the images nor in the stories nor in the comments of her husband, the Italian singer Fedez, who has traveled to Miami. The Italian press is considering several theories and there has even been talk of separation. The media claimed that Ferragni had entered a building where a well-known Milanese lawyer specialized in divorces has a law firm, something that the narrowest circle of the influencer he ended up denying it. There are also those who suggest that the apparent media distancing is due to a marketing strategy to separate the careers and social narratives of one of the most media couples in the country to save their empire.
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