Drew Brees Endorsing Pyramid Sche... I mean "direct sales" company

The dream Drew Brees -- and AdvoCare -- is trying to sell

 

It's Confederated Products. It's a different company, it's a different quality of product.

 

I met a distributor for this company at the gym back in 2010 and he approached me to become a "team member." I sat through his 45-minute pitch, during which he told me I could be simply a seller, someone who casually sells some of the product direct to consumers, or I could reach distributor level, in which I would recruit others to work under me and I would purchase large amounts of the product, which they would then buy from me and sell directly to consumers. As he's telling me this, he drew on a white board the following diagram (not sure if this will work):
/\
/\ /\
/\ /\ /\ /\
/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\/\

So I listened to the whole spiel and the first question I asked was, "Isn't this basically just a pyramid scheme?" To which he answered, "No, no. You think Drew Brees would endorse a pyramid scheme? This is a sales matrix, and you can see here how quickly you can start earning life-changing money by becoming a distributor. Now, if the initial investment of $2,000 is too high, I will front that money for you, so you can join the team. I can tell you'd do great at this."

Now, anyone who knows me knows I wouldn't be a good salesman of bottled water in the desert. Fortunately, I'm smart enough to recognize when someone is trying to sell me shit by telling me it's a delicacy. But I know several other people in my area, a couple of whom I'm friends with, who were taken in, purchased the product, sold some or most of it off and then realized they'd pretty much been duped.

The thing that gets people with these is that they often do sell out that first run, which is why this guy was willing to give me the first batch of inventory for free. You sell that to all the people you know, you think, "Wow, that was easy!" Then you invest your own money in it, but now you have to hustle to sell it and, suddenly, you're out $2k or $4k or more and wondering what the hell happened.

EDIT: The spacing of the "sales matrix" doesn't work out, but suffice to say, it looks suspiciously like a pyramid.

 

All of these pyramid schemes love celebrity endorsers. Their social media alone allows them to build a big "sales team".

And, so, the celebrity probably does make money, giving others hope.

Whatever happened to this product:

Zija -- Anyone here ever heard of it?

 

The organization's religious culture, coupled with the "prosperity gospel" that resonates so well with athletes and young people of faith makes it a perfect pyramid scheme.

 

It's good that ESPN allowed this to be published, but if it continues to accept AdvoCare's money to sponsor the Texas Bowl (which ESPN owns), isn't it talking out of both sides of its mouth?

Also, a friend of mine from college messaged me on Facebook about AdvoCare a few years ago. I shut it down pretty quick and that was that. Another college friend of mine said the guy had approached him, too. Not sure if he's still involved with it or not.

Seems like every other woman on my Facebook feed (including one of my cousins) is selling Rodan + Fields skin care products. Seems like there's a multi-level marketing aspect to it, although it's closer to Avon or Mary Kay than AdvoCare.

 

AdvoCare is a big player in MLS sponsorship too.

AdvoCare® Scores Multi-Year Partnership with MLS, Named Official Sports Nutrition Partner | PRESS BOX

 

Some things are legal and wrong.

Some things are illegal and justified.

Direct sales pyramid scheme companies are the slimiest of slime.

In the sales world, they are the used car dealer who lets folks with bad credit finance there but has the repo tow truck warming up in the back.

 

This American Life had a good show about the direct marketing scheme.
543: Wake Up Now

They highlighted some of the tactics and sales pitches not from AdvoCare but from a company called Wake Up Now, which is essentially the same thing. Basically it sounds like a cult. There's a lot of the same hype and talk that one might hear from a church except they aren't selling eternal salvation and Heavenly rewards, they are trying to get people to become sellers on the promise that they might become rich. In reality basically no one except for a few will ever see real money and even fewer than that will become rich.

One of my good friends is involved with World Ventures, which has its members selling vacations and sends them on discounted vacations. They carry around those dopey signs "You Should Be Here." He keeps talking about when his business takes off and even chided a coworker for not getting involved in the opportunity when the coworker was complaining about not being able to make any money. Said God was giving him an opportunity to escape from Verizon. That was a year ago. My friend still works at Verizon. I haven't spoken to him since. Just tired of hearing about this damn scheme.

 

God is giving you an opportunity to escape Verizon should be a discount cellular phone service's slogan.

 

A "friend" from college roped me into Equinox when I was 20. I was an easy mark because I always had money in school as I had high-paying cash jobs and a car to get to them.

The slimiest of all.

I escaped Equinox but not without losing about $2,300. Years later, I consider it a small price to pay for the knowledge of MLM schemes.