The fallout from the “Pandoro scandal” that hit mega influencer Chiara Ferragni is not over yet.
Coca Cola said Friday that it has suspended its collaboration with Ferragni amid the outrage 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.
In 2022, Ferragni announced that she had partnered with Italian pastry company Balocco to create a limited edition pink pandoro Christmas cake and launch a campaign to “support a research project for new therapeutic treatments for children suffering from Osteosarcoma and Ewing Sarcoma” at the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin.
It was later determined by the Italian Competition Authority (or “AGCM”) that social media posts and press releases promoting the campaign had misled consumers into thinking that buying the more expensive limited-edition pandoro would result in a donation to the charity when in reality, Balocco had already made a fixed donation to the hospital in 2022 and proceeds of the sales promoted by Ferragni did not benefit the hospital.
As a result of the unsavory publicity caused by the scandal, Coca Cola is dumping Ferragni as a social media ambassador, stating, “We worked with Chiara in Italy in 2023, including some filming held last December. For now we don’t plan to use this content”.
The bow-out seems to confirm earlier newspaper reports that Coca Cola has pulled a television commercial featuring Ferragni that was due to air from the end of January.
Last month, Italy’s Antitrust authority issued fines of over one million euros to the the 36-year-old businesswoman’s companies and 420,000 euros to Italian confectionery company Balocco for unfair commercial practice in relation to the sales of a branded pandoro.
The companies linked to Ferragni allegedly made more than one million euro from the initiative.
