How Italy’s Left Tied Its Fate to a Scandal-Hit Influencer
Chiara Ferragni is Italy’s top influencer, a brand the center-left Democrats have long tried to associate themselves with. But now the fashion blogger and businesswoman is enveloped in scandal, showing the pitfalls of making influencers progressive icons.
Chiara Ferragni and Fedez attend a premiere on September 16, 2019, in Milan, Italy. (Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images)
For years, Chiara Ferragni has been Italy’s most-followed influencer. But it only took a pandoro — a sweet Italian Christmas bread — to bring down her multimillion-euro powerhouse. A scandal over funds related to a Ferragni-branded pandoro has now brought the influencer under scrutiny for allegedly perpetrating multiple fraudulent charity schemes and unfair commercial practices.
But looking over the ruins of Ferragni’s empire, something rather strange catches the eye — the debris of the political left. For this story is also about how the influencer’s downfall reflects the ideological weakness of the parties who aligned themselves with her. Right-wing prime minister Giorgia Meloni has certainly noticed that influencers are embarrassing figureheads for progressive politics — but the Democrats haven’t.
Two, Three, Many Insta Stories
Having 29.5 million Instagram followers gives Ferragni a lot of sway. The launch of a festive charity pandoro, with her personal branding, was meant to put this to good use. People thought that Ferragni would give part of the profits to a Turin hospital. Instead, the company producing the dessert, Balocco, had already donated a fixed sum of only €50,000. The rest was profit for Ferragni. Once this was exposed, she tearfully apologized and donated €1 million to the hospital. However, that did not stop the criminal investigation into the case from engulfing all her other initiatives.
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