Must watch movies and TV shows to help you wise up to multi-level marketing schemes
These MLM movie, documentary, and video recommendations will make you smarter about how multi-level marketing schemes extract money out of you… and your friends.
MLMs are now widely called commercial cults. That’s because they replicate the recruitment and retention tactics of these other high control groups.
When it comes to learning about these groups, we voraciously watch cult content—commercial and otherwise—much in the same way we can’t get enough of true crime dramas. R. Daniel Foster, a contributing journalist at Forbes recently asked me for an article called The Cult Content Boom, “what’s behind the obsession with cults?”
My answer: most of us think we could never be recruited to join one. We want to believe that we are too smart or too savvy. But being smart has nothing to do with whether you get pulled into a cult, a conspiracy, or an MLM.
Cults (and advertisers) actively seek out vulnerable people as part of their member recruitment strategy, an issue often overlooked in popular cult discussion. Rather than recognizing the implicit power, attractiveness, and appeal of a unifying worldview—something that will make us feel better, or more connected to others—the tendency is to fixate on the nature of the specific conspiracy or cult belief. And, as I explained in this Forbes article, the reality is that we are all vulnerable at some point in our lives and the level of vulnerability has been heightened in today’s political climate.
“The fascination with cults fundamentally rests in the idea that people believe that they can’t be drawn into one... The first step in the recruitment process is to find vulnerable people. We are all vulnerable at some point in our lives—we’ve moved to a new town, gotten a divorce, lost a loved one—which means we could all be lured into a cult.”
Cult documentaries and docuseries available 24/7 are a blessing and a curse. They can lull us into believing we can’t be taken in, but they also illustrate how day-to-day uncertainty can make cultish communities appealing. Hearing from the experiences of folks who were motivated to join these organizations helps to show how the gap between them and us is not as wide as we might prefer to imagine.
Bearing this in mind, documentaries about multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs) provide some of the clearest examples of how susceptible all of us are to cult recruitment tactics.
“The definition of cult has broadened, fueling greater interest. About 50 years ago, a cult was equated with the word “dangerous.” ... Because of digital media, the definition has expanded to be closer to the 17th century one, when cults were groups that venerated a person or ideology.”
For Hoodwinked, I spent three years researching MLMs, interviewing corporate marketers and antiMLMers alike. The things that struck me about these companies were: 1) how widespread they are, and 2) how intricately they are enmeshed with the Republican Party, going back to the days of Gerald Ford.
What we are seeing now is a “correction” in the MLM industry. Companies are shuttering or changing their sales structure in a way we haven’t seen before. Based on my conversations, this shouldn’t be surprising. Alternative money-making opportunities and the work of the anti-MLM have had a considerable impact…interestingly, so has private equity.
Who Should Watch These Recommendations?
I call MLMs the canary in the coal mine of today’s marketing landscape. That’s why anyone in the marketing field should watch these videos with an eye toward understanding the importance of community and connection for consumers and salespeople.
For everyone else, you or someone you know has been drawn in by these groups. The way to protect yourself is to understand how they work. You will also be introduced to anti-MLMers who can help you get friends and family members out of these organizations.
MLM Movie Recommendation
Betting on Zero is the story of when billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman decided to try and take down Herbalife by shorting the stock. Simplistically, when Wall Streeters short a stock it means they are betting that it will go down, thus the title of documentary.
The film does a good job of explaining the issues associated with MLMs through an in-depth case study of Herbalife. What makes this company so distasteful is that they target undocumented immigrants—a population not only vulnerable, but one that is unlikely to complain to authorities. The drama of the film comes from wondering if Ackman will win in his fight.
A final note, given where Bill Ackman is today in terms of his politics, one has to wonder what happen to him. Obviously he didn’t pursue this simply out of altruism (he stood to make a lot of money), but he also didn’t have to take on this fight—one that was very brutal and very public.
MLM Documentary Recommendation
LuLaRich was one of the most watched shows on Amazon Prime in when it launched in 2021. The docuseries recounts the rise and fall of LuLaRoe, a California-based company made famous through the sales of brightly colored and wildly patterned leggings. (For a short intro to the company, be sure to check out Samantha Bee’s takedown of the company.)
This exposé presents the mindboggling lengths that consultants were compelled to go in order to reach their sales goals. Sure, time away from their families and stockpiling inventory has become common knowledge. Shocking, however, was that top salespeople were told that they had to have cosmetic surgery—better appearance meant better sales.
Unlike other MLMs, LuLaRoe was successfully sued. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop them.
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See if LulaRich is available for streaming on Apple TV here.
MLM TV Show Recommendation
John Oliver’s MLM Explainer Video on Last Week Tonight
It’s been almost 10 years and this video about the damages MLMs have wrought stands the test of time. If you only have a half hour to devote to the topic, this is your content of choice.