Advocare vs. Mina Kimes The New Pyramid Scheme?

"We at AdvoCare are disappointed with the tone, angle, and depth of reporting in Mina Kimes' article". 

Stop the crying already, please. I am not sure why Advocare would be so upset about what they read or heard from the ESPN report. Last time I checked, what she said was spot on. Your Success School to many people is more like a pep rally. Watch the videos all over the internet, at what point do you teach at this school? Is she wrong? She's quoting people that were there. 

She goes on to say that Advocare recruits high profile athletes to endorse the product, and that one of them, Drew Brees, said the following in an ad "And the financial benefits can be just as rewarding for those who want more and decide to build their own AdvoCare business."

Then she uses Gabriel Chavez's statement that he was mislead to believe Advocare would bring him significant financial rewards, and it did not happen. Well, I have news for you Advocare. We did not need Chavez to fill that little gap. Your own yearly financial statement does that on its own. I find it interesting that there is no significant increase in distributors each year. But let me use your 2016 income disclosure statement to help you better understand what Mina is talking about, because apparently you have not read it. 

Out of 570,289 "distributors" only 157,905 received a check.That is about 28% of all distributors that receive a check. What does that mean? That means 72.31% get 0, zip, nota damn thing from you. This is where it gets a little confusing. It is difficult to tell how much each active distributor made, see because we are given numbers such as 32.36% earned between $0.01 to $50. Yup, that means there is a good chance that most of them could have earn a penny all year. Of course that is my opinion based on the information provided. 

Remember, that is 32% of active distributors. So 50,529.6 made next to nothing along with the other 72 percent of non active distributors. That leaves around 107 thousand. unfortunately 32.86 made between $50.01 and $250. If my math is correct that is 51,887. Again, divide that between 12 months and see how that works out for you. 13.17% made between $250 to $500. That means 20,796 also made pretty much nothing after all their expenses. But that is my opinion. You should begin to notice that 123,212 of the 157,905 have not made any money, or not even close to the type of money required to live off. 

I was going to continue but I think you get the point. If you are interested go click on the link and finish the math, but it is not pretty. So lets get back to Advocare's crying.

See, according to Advocare, and I am quoting:

"They (Mina & ESPN) ignored the breadth of our industry-leading Policies and Procedures, ignored our robust compliance requirements and Business Ethics team, and told their story through untrustworthy sources who are currently embroiled in lawsuits with AdvoCare."

I provided information to Mina, and I am not in a lawsuit with Advocare. All information or most, is provided by Advocare or their distributors? If anyone is interested in reading Advocare's desperate attempt to down play a well written article by Mina click here
Mina's article is based on information gathered from people withing the "company" Advocare, and people that used to be a distributor. 

She covered everything. Advocare's belief that they are a direct sales company, although many of the sales could be made right online without ever meeting the person. Just go to one of the distributors online websites. Advocares intent is to have a big gathering, share the products at the distributors expense, with hopes someone bites. But, if it makes you happy Advocare we can call it direct sales. Mina then talks about religion and how many of the distributors such as the McDaniel's family use it on a regular basis. Sorry, she just covered the truth, what did you want her to say. 

Advocare told Mina that many of the distributors/customers join not for the business, but for the discount on the products. Well then Advocare that would be a customer, not a distributor. But yet for years you allowed them to sign on as a distributor. What is the difference between a preferred customer and a distributor that you have listed on your website? Preferred customer cannot sell the product? Never mind I found a video that explains it all here. God I love YouTube. 

Lets just say, you are probably going to get the 20% discount unless you are planning on spending over $500 bucks a month for the 25% discount. By the way, I find it interesting that the preferred customer was implemented in 2016, when I have been questioning the customer/distributor thing for a long time and so has AdvoTruth Facebook. I wonder if your distributor counts will be lower by the time you release your 2018 Income Disclosure? Seriously, do you think the change will make a difference? Make your company business model look better? Less pyramid like. 

I have never said that the product don't sell. I have always complained about the method at which your distributors sell, implemented by Advocare. Is it legal? Yes it is, but in my opinion it should not be as it opens the door for deceptive behavior. Not to mention I believe it hides a bigger secret. What is worse than one pyramid? Hundreds of pyramids embedded, and run similar to any other pyramid scheme. Take away the product and what do you have?

There is a startup fee to be a distributor/advisor. That fee goes to Advocare. Lets use Advocare's true business builder the advisor. The advisor comes in at a 40% discount. The advisor gives Advocare $500 and Advocare gives them 200 dollars back.  That is 40% right? The advisor gets 20 people to sign on as a distributor at the 20% discount and they give Advocare $500 dollars. Advocare gives them $100 dollars, and because advisor came in at the 40% and the distributor is only at 20% discount the advisor also gets a $100. Because you got 20 people to do that, you just made $2000 dollars without a product. 

The organization at the top of the large pyramid (Advocare) made their money back, and then some because the product was way over priced. So, if you add a product that makes it alright? Ok, relax Advocare, we know you have products, but unfortunately your business model has way too many similar traits as a pyramid scheme. 

Advocare                                                   Pyramid Scheme

Startup Fee                                                Startup Fee

Cannot get Paid without Recruiting Others                        Pays for Recruiting 

Money Flows Up                                       Money Flows Up

Product                                                         No Product 


Seriously, just because Advocare and other companies have found a way to get others to market the product, where they are the only ones guaranteed to make millions (minus the probably less than 100 each year that find a way to make it to the top of the smaller pyramids), does not exclude them from becoming the new pyramid scheme. One of these days I will sit down and draw it out or put it in a video to show you what the pyramid scheme looks like today. Remember Advocare, this is my opinion, and according to the constitution I have what we call freedom of speech, and I am not one of your distributors you can unfairly force into binding arbitration in the state of Texas. That will be my next article I believe. 

Please share your thoughts and visit Advocare Review Facebook or Advotruth Facebook for more MLM information. 













No comments:

Post a Comment