Robyn Rihanna Fenty

Earlier this week, Robyn Rihanna Fenty revealed that she was pregnant with her first child. You don’t get to amass a $1.7 billion fortune by the age of 33 without being adroit at using social media: no surprises, then, that the announcement was highly impactful.

There are worse ways to have your mind taken off the Sue Gray report than by the spectacle of Rihanna walking down a snowy street in Harlem in an $8,000 pink vintage Chanel puffer coat and low-slung jeans, belly naked bar a cascade of jewellery.

I’ve already written about the sharp decline in “get the look” pitches, so won’t repeat myself except to say that this trend is still holding true. Curiously, as they’ve declined, stat-based pitches have increased. I now have an inbox full of Ri-related statistics: that Google searches for pink jackets increased by 134%, that searches for pearl necklaces increased by 237%, that searches for maternity ranges increased by 534%, and that searches for Rihanna’s fragrances increased by 110%. 

Which is all very nice, but beyond a line in a feature, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with this intel, especially when the reports have been commissioned by brands with no relevance to Rihanna. Interesting as stats are, they need a relevant context – otherwise, they’re just stats.