Advocare Marketing Business Targeting Educational Facilities

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Recently I have been doing some research about Advocare for a friend, and while doing so I came across information that I found troubling. Most people are well aware of Advocare and what they are. For those of you that are unfamiliar, they are a multilevel marketing company that sells a variety of nutritional products, sports performance products, and weight-loss product, among other things. If you visit their website you will notice they also have many doctors and athletes that endorse their products. When I first began writing about Advocare, I really did not pay that much attention to those individuals and their ability to influence and the possible end result. Unfortunately, my research has led me to believe that their endorsements are not to be taken lightly. Please allow me to explain.

On the surface, having famous doctors and athletes endorsing a product seems innocent. But what is the end result? What happens when people see or hear famous people backing a product? Many people will begin to use the product because they believe they will get the same results. Some will be skeptical until they are assured by a doctor that the product is backed by scientific research. Although I assure you, I have not seen any real studies to support Advocares safe and efficacy claim, in my opinion. Then what do you get? Well, you either get a user, a distributer, or a using distributor. But all that is just intuitive conjectures, although viable. Trust me that is not what is troubling me. During my recent research I discovered that Advocare and many distributors are targeting our school system.

Yes, that is right, all over the United States Advocare has begun a campaign that I believe started with people like Danny McDaniel. Their campaign leads a reasonable person to believe they are targeting coaches and athletes of all ages. See, McDaniel was an athletic director and football coach. When he started Advocare, he built his business selling to whom? Well, I do not know about that, but what I do know, he was given an Advocare product by an Athletes parent according to this video. Until recently the thought of Advocare being around children did not bother me all that much. Except for those parents giving the product to their children. But then I found out that Rob Graf, apparently Advocare Director of Endorsements is providing 8 workout tips for high school athletes. He is soliciting business from parents with athletic children. Here is a small quote from Mr. Graf: “I get many calls from parents who have younger athletes (ages 14-17) who want to maximize their lean muscle gain. The following program has been a proven winner and features many Performance Elite products that are OK for anyone 12 or older to take regularly”. He then goes on to promote Advocare products for these 12-17 year old children”. 

Well that explains why other distributors are doing the same thing. For example, Brad Pantall, husband of Advocare distributor Sara Pantall,  promotes Advocare products through his coaching career (link). Then there is Independent Distributor Andrew D Sweet, he too is looking into making some profit penetrating our schools. Really, you should read Andrews interesting presentation. He starts off warning the reader about the dangers of what high school and college athletes maybe putting into their bodies, and then goes on to explain how Advocare has been thoroughly tested and safe and effective. I could probably go on forever with names such as Coach Kelly Kennedy, Ken Chertow, Chad Short, and Pam Kennon Advocare distributor and 5th grade teacher. All of them are utilizing Advocares campaign to target children. A marketing strategy that targets the recruitment of parents of school aged athletes with the intent to serve more children and young adults Advocare products for personal gain.

 I could provide many more names of people targeting our schools, but I think you get the point. It was bad enough reading about parents giving their children a spark drink to control ADHD, but now we are seeing an all out assault on our school system. Where do we draw the line? What is next, a spark vending machine? Well, I guess that cannot happen, Advocare is a direct sales company. Please tell me I am not the only one concerned about the increased use of processed performance enhancing supplements. What are the long term effects? Every year we are hearing more stories about high school athletes collapsing on the field. Is there a connection? How many of those kids were using products such as Advocare? Do 12-18 year old athletes need to take supplements? What happened to relying on good eating habits and only taking supplements when you have been diagnosed with a deficiency? There have been no long term testing performed on young adults under the age of 18, so why are Advocare and their distributors so eager to provide such a diet to school age children?

I will tell you why! Because it is about staying in business. It is about selling products regardless of the lack of proof that their product is safe for young adults. When the market becomes so saturated, targeting young adults becomes a distributor’s new target market, backed by Advocare. That might be an intuitive conjecture, because at this point in time I am not sure if Mr. Graf is acting on his own or in congruence with Advocare International. 

I will be writing more about this in the future, but for now I would love to hear your thoughts about the subject. Please feel free to contact me at edwardwallace_sr@hotmail.com. Or leave a comment below.

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