Lucarelli's book has been first in a variety of charts for weeks. Presentations are being made in cinemas, theaters (when are the arenas and San Siro?), Instagram feeds, reviews, and despite the fact that the national press ignores it by not reviewing it, Lucarelli is by all accounts opening her eyes to the world of social and charity.
Undoubtedly, the book is well written, the author knows how to get straight to the point, untangles knots about questionable charities by tracing the lives of the Ferragnez from their first meeting to a few weeks ago. From here we get the sense that Lucarelli really writes fast.
The Ferragnez the quintessential media couple who follow algorithms, expose their children out of proportion, protected by news outlets, and use charity in decidedly unclear ways no longer exist. Lucarelli points out how they are mother and father, rather than children, of a system that must surely be revised, the social system that has allowed them their real success, especially Chiara's because Fedez is seen as a moth. A pot to be uncovered in short, which Selvaggia has carefully uncovered and studied and brought it to us shouting: I'll tell you the truth.
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But there are some points (questions) that deserve reflection.
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Let's start with the subtitle “Rise and Fall of the Ferragnez.” Certainly as a couple and as a “brand” they are in free fall, indeed they have splattered to the ground. Primarily because they have separated and thus it is highly unlikely that another series dedicated to them will air, but to call the Ferragni dead/finished is a bit of an exaggeration. Dead certainly is a modus operandi that is unlikely and fortunately can be replicated, but for Selvaggia, Chiara has no hope and Fedez never did. While it is true that the dizzying brands and sponsorships have now abandoned her, it is also true that the loss of followers is ridiculous compared to the numbers they have, and since they move mostly on social, it is not certain that Chiara will remain radioactive for much longer.
- It is over the couple not the individuals. Fedez is now out with his revenge song “SexyShop” and for Ferragni we just have to wait for the ruling because it would also be fair to point out that she is under investigation but not yet convicted. According to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Justice, it has been ruled that someone who has already been severely punished with an administrative sanction (the fine) cannot then be punished with the criminal sanction for the same act. This would, in fact, be a duplication of the state's punitive response. We shall see how this works out.
- Lucarelli's book is not a journalistic investigation as it has been presented and as she herself defines it. It is simply not because if it were, there would not have to be the comments of the author herself who, from the first pages to the last, judges, ridicules with sometimes decidedly performative and spicy jokes the world of the two protagonists. It is normal to disagree with the ways and manners that the two influencers have used to present their lives, their business, to get out of reputational crises and to appear always in the right until now, but if the book were a journalistic investigation there should only be the facts lined up for the purpose of clarifying events and reconstructing episodes and dynamics that are kept hidden from public opinion without any judgment. But Lucarelli can't keep her fingers to herself, after all, they go so fast.
- The insight issue. Ferragni's companies were not providing brands with insights, i.e., the actual return on the campaign they had funded, or to put it another way, how many users clicked on the links Chiara proposed. “There is also talk of 600 thousand euros to show a yogurt at breakfast,” declares a former employee interviewed in the book, “they might very well not have worked, only the companies would never have known.” The idea would have come from Fabio Damato, Chiara's former right-hand man. Granted that something like this should be banned, let's take Calzedonia and Pantene, which have had a long association with Ferragni. Companies of that caliber that continue to carry on a long and enduring relationship don't have ways to see if that product worn by her sells? I would say that sales figures are readily available, so subject to the important premise, it is news that could easily be debunked or non-news if you want to look at it from another point of view.
- Former employees. Two former employees are interviewed, with the premise, Lucarelli writes, that “none of them has any reason for hostility toward Ferragni.” Out of it comes precisely the issue of insight and the fact that Ferragni practically never showed up at the office, that she signed contracts from home (evidently without reading them) that the scene filmed for the Amazon series where Ferragni is in a meeting was fiction, that she did not know the names of the employees, and that she only talked to Damato. She basically did not do a damn thing except ask for receipts statements. Now I issue a challenge to any former employee of any company who swears that he or she never said and/or thought that his or her boss was a well-meaning pirate, that he or she did absolutely nothing, that he or she hired family members in the company, and that he or she even discharged in the expense report his or her children's gifts for Christmas. This is Italy, it should not be that way, but this chapter is self-destructing.
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- And to top it off, Lucarelli investigates the moth, Fedez, with a bad temper who takes over talented young people to make them his own, to suck them up like a leech, and as proof of this she claims that he speaks cluelessly about mental illness, climbs into the world of management and has produced nothing musically palatable except through featuring. That Fedez needs to have a talk with his Ego and put not a hand on his conscience but the hand of his entire family on his conscience is beyond dispute. But Fedez as opposed to Ferragni who, he points to no one knows what talent, is an artist who is part of the history of Italian music, not to mention that featuring nowadays everyone does. This is really a trend in the music market. Otherwise, how else would Nek and Renga have reappeared on the stage?
With the myth of Pandora's box, God's justice assigns female curiosity to be responsible for making man's life painful. The curiosity of Chiara or of Selvaggia?
Illustration by Gloria Dozio - Acrimònia Studios
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