Chiara Ferragni built a multimillion-dollar empire on her image and now, a discredit problem is putting her in trouble. Her cause is a controversial supposedly charitable campaign that has earned her a fine of one million euros for “incorrect commercial practices” and that has forced her to apologize through a video published on her profiles.
Last year, the influencer and the Balocco candy company launched a “pandoro”, a typical Christmas cake, with the Ferragni logo and with a price of 9 euros, three times the usual price. A claim on the product box suggested that the sale of each one would mean a donation to the Regina Margherita pediatric hospital in Turin, but the truth is that the donation, of 50,000 euros, had been made by Balocco alone, before the sweets went on sale and Ferragni pocketed a million euros with that campaign.
In a video published on Instagram, the network that elevated her, and where she daily promotes her own and other brands and exhibits her luxurious life, Ferragni apologized for having made “a communication error” with the issue of pandoro and announced that he would donate the million euros he had earned to the Turin hospital. It is the last publication on his networks, where an unusual silence has reigned for days.
But the storm, far from abating there, has intensified and the influencer Italian, one of the most followed on the planet, has ended up in the eye of a hurricane that threatens her empire of 30 million followers. This is the first significant setback for Ferragni, who had always been on a constant rise, at the controls of a perfectly oiled machinery, amassing collaborations and sponsorships that with his image alone in 2022 generated profits of 10 million euros.
These days other cases of dubious charity campaigns are coming to light, several sponsors and companies are deserting their collaborations, he is experiencing the greatest loss of followers since he stood out on the networks and the justice system is investigating his movements. An explosive cocktail for the 36-year-old Milanese businesswoman, who started her fashion blog The Blonde Salad In 2009, he ended up making a fortune and earning a master's degree at Harvard Business School, and until now he has turned everything he has touched into gold, like the water bottles he sells with his logo for 8 euros.
The prosecution is investigating two campaigns to sell Easter eggs, wrapped in their classic pink color and with their anagram, which were sold in 2021 and 2022 by the Dolci Preziosi company and which promised to contribute to a charitable project in favor of the inclusion of children with autism. It has been discovered that the collection exceeded one million euros, while the donation was only 36,000 euros. Investigators will try to clarify whether it was a commercial operation disguised as charity.
In the midst of the downpour, the Italian group specialized in high-end glasses Safilo has announced that it is breaking its collaboration with Ferragni, “after the violation of the contractual commitments of its owner,” as explained in a statement. The company, owner of brands such as Carrera or Polaroid and designer of others such as Carolina Herrera or Jimmy Choo, has not specified what contractual violation this is.
Although her legion of followers is immense and reaches almost 30 million from all over the world, in less than a week, since the Balocco case broke, the Italian has lost around 90,000 followers, 0.3% of her community. The company specialized in digital strategy and communication DeRev has analyzed the data from Ferragni's networks for the newspaper The Republic: “Contrary to what one might imagine, the downward curve of followers has not subsided since the apology video, but has actually become even more accentuated; “especially in terms of audience on Instagram, this matter represents the first real setback for Chiara Ferragni and the largest hemorrhage of followers in the history of her account,” they noted. And they have also highlighted that, in general, user comments on the latest publications of the influencer are negative, especially in the entries in the commercial collaborations section, where the Italian businesswoman advertises different brands. These notes are significant, considering that social networks are the cornerstone of the Ferragni empire.
The case has raised such a stir in Italy that, in addition to occupying prominent spaces in the information and opinion sections of most newspapers and television programs, it has reached politics. Even the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has attacked the influencer, although without quoting her directly, in one of his speeches. While the politician highlighted the activity of the Government in the last year and criticized the opposition, she attacked Ferragni in an aggressive tone: “The true model to follow is not the influencers who make money hand over fist wearing clothes or showing bags, or even promoting very expensive cakes with which they make people believe they will do charity, but whose price only serves to pay for millionaire caches. The true role model is that of those who invent, design and produce that Italian excellence,” said the prime minister, while she raised her voice, at an event organized by the youth of her party.
Giorgia Meloni took advantage of the news of the pandoro and the notoriety of Ferragni to generically discredit the work of the influencers, which, according to her, is less noble than others because it “promotes” objects instead of “producing” them. Her direct attack on an Italian businesswoman like Ferragni was also widely criticized in the transalpine country for considering it inappropriate.
Chiara Ferragni has not responded to the grievance, but the rapper Fedez, the husband of the influencer, He has commented on his networks that he found it “strange” that Meloni attacked “people who work on the internet instead of focusing on political issues.” “Have you talked about youth unemployment? No. Has he talked about the financial maneuver they are doing with their asses and that they haven't finished yet? No. Did you talk about the country's fiscal pressure? No. 'Be wary of people who work on the web': that is our prime minister's priority,” said the singer.
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