Multi-level marketing as an affinity scam
By 
If you can’t trust Drew Brees, who can you trust?
Every MLM fosters its own culture. Some promote glitz and glamour; others, like AdvoCare, push a more wholesome image. “Drew is the kind of person, really on the field as well as off, that embodies who AdvoCare is and what our brand is all about,” Levy says. That brand aligns perfectly with the quarterback’s reputation: Family man. Philanthropist. Devout Christian.
While AdvoCare doesn’t broadcast its religious side to the public — Levy says it is a secular company — former distributors say Christianity permeates the culture. The company’s sacred text, Ragus’ “Guiding Principles,” opens with the admonition: “Honor God through our faith, family and friends.” Several distributors say AdvoCare thrives inside churches, where pre-existing networks make it easier for distributors to preach the good news of multilevel marketing. “There are some congregations here in Dallas where, if you participate in some of the groups, you will participate in AdvoCare,” one former member says.
The intermingling of business and faith has caused turmoil inside the business. Lance Wimmer, a consultant who was hired to help turn around the company in 2005, says the top distributors were divided by religion; the devout churchgoers held more power and wielded it over others. At one meeting in Dallas, he says, some influential salespeople confronted him about his own faith (a former distributor corroborated this account). “They started asking me a lot of questions like, ‘Are you a religious guy? What religion are you? Do you believe in this?'” Wimmer left the company after a few months.
For some members, the pressure to conform — in dress, speech and, above all, godliness — could be agonizing. “Religion was brought up at every event or meeting I attended,” says Shereef Kamel, a former high-ranking distributor. “They’d always say: ‘This is your calling. You’re serving others. It’s the Christian thing to do.'”
Oh ye of little faith:
When Crossan and her husband did their taxes after leaving AdvoCare in 2011, they realized they had spent more than $6,000 on products, most of which had expired before they decided to return them. (AdvoCare gives salespeople 30 days to return products or up to a year if they forfeit their distributorship.) Unlike people who had started a business, they had built no equity — it was just money down the drain. “I was like, ‘Holy crap — we went through our savings,'” she says. “‘What on earth did we do?'”
AdvoCare tells distributors to give prospects an official income disclosure statement, which shows how many salespeople reach each level of the company. The numbers are stark: According to the latest statement, the company had 517,666 distributors in 2014, and just 1,209 of them — 0.2 percent — earned more than $25,000 that year; 95 percent earned $1,000 or less. Those figures don’t include profits from members’ product sales, but they also don’t include expenses, which several distributors say outweigh retail profits.
The whole story is definitely worth your time, especially if you’re not already familiar with MLM schemes, but it’s pretty depressing too. Shame on the high-level athletes like Brees who lend their names to scams that prey on the desperate.
How much land does a man need Drew?