From now on, when Italians are caught with a traffic ticket, they will be able to tell the officer on duty that they refuse to pay the fine but that, instead, they want to make a voluntary payment. A donation of the amount indicated in the ticket issued to them. After all, Chiara Ferragni has just declared that, after the closure of the investigations by the Antitrust on Easter eggs and the plea bargain, she will make a donation. The Antitrust has accepted the commitment of the entrepreneur, as reported in a note from her companies, to pay “a voluntary financial contribution which is a donationand not a penalty, for a minimum of overall 1 million and 200 thousand euros in favor of the social enterprise ‘I bambini delle fate’“. An agreement to avoid further damage to her image. Of course, Ferragni could have thought about it before, perhaps when the Pandoro case came out, saying “maybe I made a mistake with something else too”. But she didn’t do it and now she’s holding on with all her strength to this minimal hold.
Italy is this wonderful country where an accusation of fraud aggravated by a diminished defense is downgraded by the influencer to a communication error and where an Antitrust sanction can be converted and passed off as a voluntary donation. And so, between one adolescent regression and another of Ferragni, who desperately tries to hold on to her followers by trying to prove she is like them, and an immature dig at her ex-husband, Italians have also learned something new. “Think of yourself as a philanthropist“, could be the new motto of the influencer, who convinces himself that he is doing good and in this way tries to convince others that it is also so.
And maybe, in this way, she will also be able to make people forget that the Milan prosecutor’s office has investigated her for fraud, both for the pandoro and for the Easter eggs. It cannot be ruled out that this strategy will also be useful in view of a possible referral to trial, based on what the Milan prosecutor’s office and the investigating judge will decide. But in the meantime, the summer will pass like this and Ferragni, in a luxury travel and the other one is an embarrassing story and the other one, try to divert attention from serious things. Will it be enough?
No. The harsh truth is this. Chiara Ferragni’s credibility is now destroyed. As an influencer it will be difficult for her to continue working, at least in Italy, and this is demonstrated by the fact that from December to today, in 7 months, the only sponsored content it’s a hotel in Forte dei Marmi. For the rest, it doesn’t seem like there’s a queue of companies ready to sign checks with 5 or 6 zeros to see their products on her profile, which at the height of its success was a promotional noticeboard. Added to all this is the rumour about the closure of her flagship store in Milan, the jewel in the crown of an empire that is crumbling in her hands. The recent “donation” of 1.2 million is unlikely to change the course of events.
Everyone, sooner or later, must realize that they have a cycle finished. The sooner Ferragni understands this, the sooner she will be able to build a new life for herself, putting an end to the embarrassment of her followers at seeing the character she has built over the years struggling to return to what she was and will no longer be.