Coca Cola has pulled a television
commercial featuring businesswoman and social influencer Chiara
Ferragni amid a furore that broke out after it emerged that she
had allegedly profited from a charity initiative regarding a
"designer" version of the popular 'pandoro' Italian Christmas
cake, according to a report in La Repubblica newspaper on
Friday.
The advert had allegedly been due to go on air from the end of
January, just before the opening of the popular annual televised
Sanremo song festival.
Neither Ferragni, 36, or the multinational company have
officially communicated the news.
Before Christmas Italian eyewear company Safilo announced the
termination of its licensing agreement with the influencer for
the production and distribution of branded sunglasses and
eyeglasses.
The announcement came shortly after Italy's Antitrust authority
said it had issued fines of over one million euros to companies
linked to Ferragni and 420,000 euros to Italian confectionery
company Balocco for unfair commercial practice in relation to
sales of a branded pandoro on grounds the companies had
allegedly led customers to understand that by purchasing the
product they would have contributed to a donation to the Regina
Margherita pediatric hospital in Turin.
The donation of 50,000 euro had instead already been made by
Balocco on its own months earlier.
The companies linked to Ferragni allegedly made more than one
million euro from the initiative.
Shortly after, Ferragni found herself at the centre of a fresh
storm regarding a charity Easter Egg produced by Dolci Preziosi
that allegedly earned her far more than the amount donated to
the good cause in question.
Premier Giorgia Meloni alluded to the case during her closing
speech at her Brothers of Italy (FdI) annual political Atreju
festival in Rome and again during her year-end press conference
on Thursday.
"There is an issue of transparency in donations, on which we
perhaps need to work" so that individual cases "do not impact on
charity giving," Meloni told reporters in Rome.
"Getting to grips with the current rules on transparency and
possibly imagining better ones could be a useful exercise for
everyone," she added.
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