Chiara Ferragni against Giorgia Meloni to recalibrate the Ferragni brand
Chiara Ferragni against Giorgia Meloni: politics has long discovered the usefulness of marketing, now marketing accepts that even politics can sometimes be functional. The comment by Stefano Feltri, editor of the newspaper Domani
Only an ephemeral “story”, of those that last 24 hours, but Chiara Ferragni's attack on Giorgia Meloni marks a step in the direction of the political relevance of the influencers. But how many votes did Ferragni move?
The digital entrepreneur shared a post from The Vision newspaper with this content: “Fratelli d'Italia has practically made it impossible to have an abortion in the Marche region, which she governs. A policy that risks becoming national if the right wins the elections ”. Ferragni's comment is this: "Now is our time to act and make sure these things don't happen."
As in Ferragni's other forays into the political field, the Italian is uncertain and the message cryptic: what are the things that must not happen? That regions ban abortion? What Brothers of Italy wins the elections? Or that as premier Giorgia Meloni extends the anti-abortion policies experimented in the Marche?
What then is the advocated action is not clear: vote for anyone but not Meloni, it seems. Assuming that "our time" is that of the voters, and the reference is not instead to "we influencers", as an appeal to colleagues to take care of the electoral campaign.
To be a communication professional, Chiara Ferragni demonstrates a peculiar ambiguity in giving political messages. A precedent, in July 2021: in a complex parliamentary affair, the positioning of Italia viva is decisive for blocking the Zan law on homotransphobia. Ferragni shares a post by others with the face of Matteo Renzi (he does not dare to produce original content with a political theme) and a comment as clear as it is not very targeted: "How disgusting you make politicians".
It is difficult for the average follower of Chiara Ferragni to have the faintest idea of what she is talking about. Those 27.7 million followers are from all over the world, much more interested in fashion and the dynamics of the Ferragnez family than in the controversies of the political day.
In fact, Ferragni never dedicates posts or reels – that is, permanent content – to these rude policies, he leaves them confined to the “stories” that vanish after a day. He knows that they will be noticed by everyone, but they will not remain part of his "content" offer presented to those who arrive on his profile in the future.
Furthermore, those contents don't seem to be aimed at persuading or influencing the follower: probably not one of the 27.7 million followers will have changed their voting intention after seeing the story about abortion and brands. Yet, Ferragni's entire business model is built on the delicate balance between content intended to build loyalty (holidays, games with children, kisses with her husband Fedez) and those of a commercial and promotional nature, of their own or others' products. Nothing is left to chance.
The explanation for the apparent sloppiness of political messages is that they do not aim to shake consciences, but only to refine the identity of the Ferragni brand. Of course, Chiara Ferragni is associated with lightness and disengagement, but lightness and disengagement can be on the right or on the left.
Since Ferragni is somewhat biased towards a traditional, even conservative imaginary (standard family, hedonism, aspirational brands), every now and then he adds a politically connoted touch that tickles the progressive part of his audience and his potential customers without compromising relationships with the other.
Politics has long since discovered the usefulness of marketing, now marketing accepts that even politics can be functional from time to time.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/chiara-ferragni-giorgia-meloni/ on Sun, 28 Aug 2022 06:45:51 +0000.