Why MonaVie is a Scam
The short answer is yes. The longer answer? It is perhaps the most incredible example of deceptive marketing in the history of mankind.
What I’ve found is tons of irrefutable evidence supported by reputable third parties that MonaVie is a grossly overpriced product, with little nutritional value, wrapped in a poor business opportunity that appears to be illegal pyramid scheme, supported by nonsensical “scientific” studies and illegal medical claims.
That’s a lot to digest. I’m going to give you a minute to re-read that.
Typically when people are interested in MonaVie, they are focused on two things: 1) The nutritional value of the product and 2) the business opportunity. After all, the promise of MonaVie marketing is health and wealth for you and all your friends.
MonaVie’s Nutritional Value
Many of MonaVie’s claims come on something called a ORAC value. It’s a lab test that measures anti-oxidants in food. On the face of it higher ORAC seems better, but there’s a lot more to it than that. I’m not a doctor, so I’m not going to try to explain ORAC to you. However, Dr. Jonny Bowden explains that MonaVie doesn’t cure cancer and gives great detail about ORAC in the process.
There are a couple more issues with regard to MonaVie an ORAC values. High on the list is that MonaVie lies about the ORAC score of MonaVie. They published two widely different scores.
Many distributors make the claim that drinking 4 ounces of MonaVie is like eating 13 fruits and thus is a way to save money. This is a huge lie. MonaVie put out marketing material that said it “Delivers the antioxidant capacity of approximately 13 servings of fruits and vegetables in just four ounces.” MonaVie set up a the classic telephone game where the initial message conveyed changes as it passes through the downline and the words, “antioxidant capacity” get left out. In this statement, the antioxidant capacity is measured ORAC value, and the equivalent fruits and vegetables are not even mentioned. A MonaVie product specialist cleared this up when called, but MonaVie didn’t issue a clarification or change its website for years… see more at Drinking MonaVie is Not Equal to Eating 13 Fruits.
To follow up on the above, a single apple has the antioxidant capacity of 9.5 ounces of MonaVie. If a person was relying on four ounces of MonaVie to give them the equivalent of 13 fruits, they are making a huge nutritional error as 13 apples has the equivalent ORAC value as 123 ounces of MonaVie. MonaVie Original retails for around $1.48 an ounce, so that’s around $182 of juice for the equivalent antioxidant capacity of 13 apples.
A consortium of U.S. government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), USDA, and the FDA to put out guidelines on fruit and veggies and serving size. The result is that 4 ounces of MonaVie is a Serving of fruit which looks like 1 snack container of applesauce (4oz) or about 6 baby carrots. At MonaVie’s retail price of around $6.00 for four ounces that’s like buying a baby carrot for $1.00!
If you need a little more evidence on the nutritional value of MonaVie, Men’s Journal put several fruit juices to the test using criteria set up by a director or clinical nutrition. The result was horrendous, “MonaVie tested extremely low in anthocyanins and phenolics. Even apple juice (which also tested poorly) has more phenolics…” and “Plus, MonaVie’s vitamin C level was five times lower than that of Welch’s Grape Juice. That’s not many nutrients, especially at $1.20 a serving.” Website changes have divided the article into many pieces, but the you can read it in two parts: part 1 and part 2 with the MonaVie-specific comments.
What do national doctors have to say? Dr. Andrew Weil gives a thumbs down on MonaVie, Dr. Dean Edell calls MonaVie worthless, and Dr. Joe Schwarcz warns against acai health claims. These are all unbiased, nationally-recognized doctors.
I could continue to give facts about the lack of nutrition in MonaVie, but perhaps the creator of MonaVie itself is one of the best sources. The Salt Lake Tribune reported this interesting information that came out from a lawsuit with Amway:
The suit also uncovered an internal MonaVie memo by Ralph Carson, the company’s chief science officer, who created the original juice. The memo was in response to raised eyebrows about claims being made about the juice. Carson cautioned that the drink was “expensive flavored water. Any claims made are purely hypothetical, unsubstantiated and, quite frankly, bogus.”
Those claims that he’s referring to are the illegal health claims that we’ll get to in a bit.
Juice in general is not healthy
Another aspect to consider is that juice itself is shown not to be healthy. For years we thought it was healthy, but that thinking has changed and many view soda and juice as being the same. The HBO documentary Weight of a Nation clearly spells this out.
Here are some key quotes from that video: “Soda and other sugary drinks… is the only individual food that is directly related to obesity”, “There is nothing in a soft drink that is good for you. A Twinkie or a potato chip or a candy bar has at least a little nutrition. These sugared beverages have none at all”, and “Juice is just like soda… there is no difference. When you take fruit and you squeeze it, you throw the fiber in the garbage. That was the good part of the fruit. The juice is nature’s way of getting you to eat your fiber.”
When we take the statements above together, juice the same as soda, soda having less nutrition than a potato chip, it is clear that MonaVie can’t be nutritious. The processing has stripped out the fiber… the good part of the fruit. Some may argue that MonaVie is only four ounces a day and it’s not going to contribute to obesity. Well that 120 calories a day does add up… in a year it is 12.5 pounds (43,800 yearly calories divided by 3,500 calories in a pound).
(To prevent MonaVie distributors claiming that HBO doesn’t know anything about health, Weight of a Nation was done with “the Institute of Medicine (IOM), in association with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).”)
As you can tell from the label above, MonaVie doesn’t have much of the fiber that comes from fruit naturally. Recently MonaVie started to add “fake” fiber (Fibersol-2 / Maltodextrin), so consumers looking at the nutritional label could be easily tricked into thinking that they are getting the good part of the fruit.
Need another source? Here is the New York Times article by three professors of pediatrics who explain “Juice is Not Healthy”.
MonaVie’s Specialized Health Drinks
MonaVie adds a special ingredient or two to its basic juice to create a juice for a specific purpose. The above illustrated the minimal value of the juice alone. Let’s look at a few versions:
MonaVie Active – This MonaVie juice’s star ingredients is glucosamine. In four ounces of MonaVie Active there are 1500mg of glucosamine. On Amazon.com, I found that you can get 375 tablets of Kirkland Glucosamine HCI for a price of $22.55 (as of 6/8/2012). It takes two tablets to equal the 1500mg of glucosamine in MonaVie Active, which comes out to 12 cents a day.
For a year, the Kirkland glucosamine will cost you $43.80. For a year of MonaVie Active (4 ounces * 365 days = 1460 ounces is about 58 and half bottles (25 ounces per bottle). At the retail price of $45 a bottle, 58 bottles costs $2,610 a year. You can save some money by buying MonaVie Active in bulk, but you’ll never get the price under $1000, especially with shipping. You’ll save at least a thousand dollars, perhaps two thousand by going with the equivalent cheap solution from Amazon or your local drug store.
With this noted, scientific research shows that it probably is not worth buying glucosamine at all.
MonaVie Pulse – This MonaVie juice’s star ingredients are plant sterols and resveratrol added. In four ounces of MonaVie Pulse there are 0.8g of plant sterols. I couldn’t find the amount of resveratrol. On Amazon, I found CholestOff, which actually has 0.9g of plant sterols. The 240 tablets, 120 servings, costs $22.22, which is 18.5 cents a day or $67.59 a year.
MonaVie Pulse is typically the same price as MonaVie Active above (around $2610, but cheaper if bought in bulk) and it too will cost you thousands more than the much obvious cheaper solution.
What about the resveratrol? Without knowing how much is in MonaVie Pulse, we can’t really make a fair price comparison. There is this resveratrol, which will cost you $76.19 a year. The combination of CholestOff and this resveratrol is still a bargain at around $140 compared to spending a couple of thousand dollars and not knowing how much resveratrol you’ll get.
While plant sterols have been shown to the FDA to help cholesterol levels, resveratrol remains and unknown… A couple of articles show that we might need to wait for legit evidence on resveratrol.
MonaVie M(mun) – This MonaVie juice’s star ingredient is Wellmune, a patented derivative of baker’s yeast from the pharmaceutical company, Biothera. Four ounces of MonaVie M(mun) has 250mg of Wellmune in it. Once again, I went to Amazon and found Immune Health Basics, which has 500mg of Wellmune. It costs $37.49 for 60 capsules or about 62.5 cents for 500mg. Since this is double the amount in MonaVie, the true cost per serving would be a little more than 31 cents. It costs $114 for a year’s supply of the same amount of Immune Health Basics as you’d get in MonaVie M(mun).
The pricing of M(mun) follows that of MonaVie Active and MonaVie Pulse above, meaning that you’d save thousands by buying the capsules of Immune Health Basics.
When you do a little more research you’ll find that Wellmune is also similar to beta glucans, a pill that you also might be able to find cheaply. When I last looked into Wellmune, around the time that MonaVie announced M(mun), research as to whether it was helpful was conflicting. One study of people found that they missed no more sick days than the placebo group when taking the product.
MonaVie MX – This MonaVie juice has the star ingredients of Active (glucosamine) and M(mun) Wellmune. Also, in addition to the basic 19 fruit juices in the juice it has 11 vegetables. Below, we’ll cover in more detail why this isn’t necessarily a good thing. As for pricing, this product like all of MonaVie juices is around $40, but in this case a few extra dollars due to having the glucosamine and the Wellmune in it.
MonaVie Essential and MonaVie Kosher – MonaVie essential seems to be a rework of “MonaVie Original” which is the basic juice with no star ingredients. MonaVie Kosher is a basic juice with no star ingredients that has been certified Kosher.
Bottom Line on MonaVie Nutrition: Any way you slice it (pun intended), MonaVie is not a good source of nutrition when compared to time-tested advice of just eating fruits and vegetables. If you are thinking about MonaVie as a dietary supplement, it represents the worst value for you dollar… and it isn’t even close. The examples I gave of a single person spending thousands more than equivalent product is multiplied when you consider a family of four. That family could save an average of over $6000+ a year by replacing MonaVie’s juices with products found in your drug store or on the Internet. Depending on your tax bracket, this simple decision could be the equivalent of getting a $10,000 raise tomorrow or winning a lottery that pays you $10,000 for life.
Does MonaVie Work?
While the talk of many, many testimonials may seem convincing, such testimonials are typical with any MLM product, especially health ones. The fact that you can many testimonials for dozens of other MLM products shows that these testimonials are not unique to MonaVie products… or any ingredients in those products. Instead, there’s a wide variety of psychological phenomena with MLM health products that give people the perception that the products work. For more details see:
No Your MLM Health Product Does Not “Work.”
The MonaVie Business Opportunity
MonaVie is sold via multi-level marketing also known as MLM. I’ve written about The Business of MLM (or What Gives Freddy Krueger Nightmares) before and is terrible. Here’s a quick recap… click on the links to read more in detail:
- Around 99.54% of People Lose Money in MonaVie – This analysis was done using MonaVie’s Income Disclosure Statement (IDS) the last time they included the number of distributors to make such calculations possible.
- No Barriers to Entry – Since anyone can be a distributor for usually very little money, anyone can be your direct competitor.
- MLM Distributors Lack Control of the Business – MonaVie can take your business away whenever it feels like it for whatever reason they want. I think MJ DeMarco might have said it best in his book Millionaire Fast Lane, “I was involved in four MLM companies. Not once do I remember dictating product decisions, research and marketing, marketing restriction, rules, cost analysis or any other activity fundamental to owning a business. As a network marketer, you don’t own a business – you own a job managing and creating a sales organization… MLM distributors are commissioned employees disguised as entrepreneurs.”
Below we’ll get to the point about MonaVie and pyramid schemes. We’ll cover how “creating a sales organization in MLM” can be considered as participating in illegal pyramid scheme.
- MLM and the Reality of Saturation – Recruiting people into MonaVie is where the Diamonds make their money. The problem is that the market is already saturated. You simply can’t go to the top of the pyramid anymore because those positions have been taken for years. In order to get there you have to build thousands of people under you and if those people wanted to be juice salesmen they would have been long before now.
- Understanding the Churn Rate in MLM – Somewhere between 60% and 90% of distributors in MLMs leave the business every year because of the first bullet point above. They didn’t make any money. MLMs replace these people with new hopefuls because their sales pitch is enticing. When MonaVie recruits someone they tell them that they too can have health and wealth for them and all their friends. Who wouldn’t want that? The scheme churns through people every year with enough people quitting and joining so that the pyramid scheme never explodes past the population of the earth.
MLM distributors like say that it is up to the person to do the work and not be “Lazy.” Well I’m an expert on Lazy and I can tell you that isn’t the truth. In MLM, losing is not a matter of effort, it’s a mathematical certainty. The circumstances surrounding the system set people up to fail.
MonaVie’s Illegal Health Claims
When I first wrote about MonaVie and wondered why people would spend $45 on juice, I had no idea how the product was marketed. I was shocked as distributors left comments connecting MonaVie to helping with cancer, autism, fibromyalgia, and just about any and every other medical condition under the sun. MonaVie has not been approved by the FDA to help with such conditions making these claims illegal.
It wasn’t until later that I learned that MonaVie CEO was the Vice President of Dynamic Essentials a company that madeRoyal Tondan Limu juice. The FDA warned the company about website claims to treat various diseases such as cancer, arthritis, and Attention Deficit Disorder caused their products to be in violation of the law. The company continued to sell the product and the FDA and Department of Justice fined the company millions and went as far as destroying the product. The action essentially put an end to Dynamic Essentials.
Dallin Larsen held “fireside chats” with hundreds of people. There is one “fireside” chat on Archive.org. He tells this convincing story how Dynamic Essentials is part of a publicly traded company with products in Wal-Mart and that they found this fascinating ingredient called Limu Moui. He goes on to essentially claim that limu that unique benefits to help with the system. At the 7:25 minute mark of the audio, Larsen tells of how he just came back from a tour talking to people who have used the product and tells of the stories he heard and how it has helping with asthma, arthritis, chronic fatique, fibromyalgia, lupis, migrane headaches, etc. He then goes to say that “We can’t make [the claim that you aren’t going to get cancer and heart disease]… I know that this product is having a benefitial impact on people’s health.
MonaVie, is an identical copy-cat of Royal Tongan Limu juice, but with acai instead of limu. The illegal health claims that I’ve seen in the comments on my article and elsewhere on the Internet come straight from the leadership.
Newsweek did a story on MonaVie in which Dallin Larsen acknowledged that while MonaVie has an 18-person compliance team which investigates distributors making false claims, “It’s next to impossible, like herding cats.” In short, MonaVie opened Pandora’s Box with their distribution system. The proper solution to fix this systemic problem is to distribute the product like Ocean Spray or Welch which doesn’t have these problems. MonaVie refuses this logical solution that would prevent consumers from be defrauded out of their hard-earned money and still allow them to get the product to those who were interested in it.
When I found MonaVie distributor Mitch Biggs claiming that MonaVie prevents swine flu, I decided to help out MonaVie’s compliance team and let them know. Mitch Biggs should know better. He was a MonaVie Emerald Executive, one of the top 166 distributors at the time, who make an average $155,000 a year. My goal was to find out how MonaVie would enforce the its policies and procedures which allow it to end a distributorship who is caught making illegal claims. Would MonaVie do what’s right and make an example to show distributors that they can’t be making these claims? Or would MonaVie cave, not wanting to create a rift amongst its distributors? The answer: Mitch Biggs Scams People and MonaVie Condones It.
A recent commenter suggested that MonaVie’s compliance was doing its job, so I showed him this story, which is about two years ago as of this pointing (June 2012). I decided to go an look and see if MonaVie is still letting Mitch Biggs be a distributor, which lead me to this video on a local news show. It seems like Mitch and Ashley Biggs are making erroneous and deceptive claims multiple times saying that MonaVie is an “easy, convenient and tasteful, way to get your fruit every day” and “just an easy, easy, way to get your fruit.” As we saw in a section above, MonaVie’s Nutritional Value, this is quite untrue. The spot even took the effort to bring a vase of 13 fruits to illustrate the deception.
It may seem like I’m picking on one distributor, but this is a leading distributor who was made an example of once before and yet continues to break the law publicly. If this is the stuff that is going on in the open, imagine what is going on behind closed doors!
Some may suggest that this is an isolated case – one example of a bad seed that every industry has. That’s simply untrue. It is a systematic problem which is so prevalent that Dr. Johnny Bowden’s article that I mentioned at the very beginning of this article was titled, “No More Claiming MonaVie Cures Cancer!” These are the kinds of things that happens when you tell distributors that they can be millionaires if you recruit enough people to buy a juice that happens to be priced at 20 times more than other juices. The distributors have to come up with some way to market the obscenely overpriced product. They are naturally going to try to make a point that it is a value for consumers as a replacement for medicine or something seemingly expensive like buying a vase of 13 fruits.
MonaVie’s Deceptive Marketing
If I were to go into depth about MonaVie’s deceptive marketing, I would never finish writing this article. This article is already so long that I wonder if you’ll read it. There’s just too much to say. I also think I covered a lot of it above. So here I’ll just give a few more examples:
In the above section, MonaVie’s Nutritional Value, I went into detailed the 13-servings of fruit and ORAC score myth. That’s a typical example of the marketing to keep in mind. Here are a few others:
- 19 fruits in the juice – MonaVie adds all these juices because the public has a perception that more juices is better. That’s not necessarily true. Regular readers know that a mutual fund with more stocks does not necessarily out-perform those with fewer stocks. A pizza with a 7-cheese blend is not necessarily better than one with a 3-cheese blend. In fact, the more ingredients, the easier it is to dilute the ingredients that MonaVie touts like acai. When you have 18 other fruits in addition to acai, the amount of acai could be less than 6% and still be the first ingredient on the list. However, if MonaVie only had 2 fruits and acai was listed first, you’d know that you are getting at least 50% acai in every ounce.
- Freeze-dried acai – For years MonaVie touted the amount of freeze-dried acai because it had a huge ORAC score. The reason it got such a high score is the fact that water was taken out, which allowed them to pack more powder per ounce. However, it was shown that MonaVie is less than 2% freeze-dried acai, meaning that even with a high score, there wasn’t enough of it to make a significant difference.
MonaVie’s “Studies”
MonaVie relies heavily on their Scientific Advisory Board, specifically Dr. Alexander Schauss. Schauss has a long list of reputation problems. One of them was that he faked his credentials and got a mail-order PhD degree from California Coast University. MonaVie pitched Schauss as an expert on acai, but they are the only ones who recognized him for anything like this. The reality is that Schauss was the supplier of his OptiAcai brand to MonaVie.
Schauss, through his AIBMR Life Sciences, pumped out a lot of “research” which could fool some people into thinking that there was actual science. In fact, MonaVie product specialist Erica Bryant wrote distributors to tell them that AIBMR is the only source of that they should use. Some of this research led to ridiculous papers such as this “Double-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Study” on MonaVie by Schauss. It doesn’t take a scientist to see that it was made for the specific purpose of giving distributors fuel to recruit more people. Tellingly, the final conclusion of the study made mention of another study that showed that eating fruit had positive results as well.
MonaVie: An Illegal Pyramid Scheme?
I believe MonaVie is an illegal pyramid scheme. Here’s why:
[survata] The FTC has a lot to say on the topic of multi-level marketing (MLM) and pyramid schemes. The best article is this one: The Bottom Line About Multi-Level Marketing Plans that warns:“Not all multilevel marketing plans are legitimate. Some are pyramid schemes. It’s best not to get involved in plans where the money you make is based primarily on the number of distributors you recruit and your sales to them, rather than on your sales to people outside the plan who intend to use the products.”
The entire article from the FTC is well worth reading. Here’s another important letter from the FTC which has this quote:
“The Commission’s recent cases, however, demonstrate that the sale of goods and service; alone does not necessarily render a multi-level system legitimate. Modern pyramid schemes generally do not blatantly base commissions on the outright payment of fees, but instead try to disguise these payments to appear as if they are based on the sale of goods or services. The most common means employed to achieve this goal is to require a certain level of monthly purchases to qualify for commissions. While the sale of goods and services nominally generates all commissions in a system primarily funded by such purchases, in fact, those commissions are funded by purchases made to obtain the right to participate in the scheme. Each individual who profits, therefore, does so primarily from the payments of others who are themselves making payments in order to obtain their own profit. As discussed above, such a plan is little more than a transfer scheme, dooming the vast majority of participants to financial failure.”
This appears to be how MonaVie works. Distributors in the upline earn commissions based on the purchase of other distibutors below. The distributors below are required to be “active”, which means either:
(A) buying product themselves or
(B) selling twice the requirement to a preferred customer
When a distributor satisfies the requirement by (A) buying product for themselves and MonaVie pays a commission to the upline on that purchase that it can be considered a pyramid scheme using the FTC’s guidelines. This is the typical way that requirement is satisfied. The distributor application for MonaVie prominently includes the Auto-Ship Program (ASP) so that new distributors can satisfy the active by buying product requirement right away.
The option (B) to qualify as active by recruiting enough preferred customers, is a new option. Previously the only method was the above option A) which makes it quite clear that MonaVie could only be viewed as a pyramid scheme. With the new option (B) it becomes a little more complex. Since (A) is a sign of a pyramid scheme, we need data from MonaVie on the percentage of distributors that qualify through the (B) option. (MonaVie doesn’t disclose this information.) Anecdotal evidence tells me that the (B) option is quite rare. As explained in the above section, MonaVie’s Nutritional Value, MonaVie’s juices represent a poor product at an extremely expensive price (approximately 20 times the price, ounce for ounce, of other 100% fruit juices). In the rare case that a preferred customer is buying the product, it is mostly like that they were sold on the illegal medical claims or deceptive marketing, as described in the section above.
For more sources about MLMs and pyramid schemes from the FTC and others, I’ve put together a compilation here: MLMs Vs. Pyramid Schemes
[/survata]How you can help put an end to the scam
The best way to put an end to this scam is to go to the FTC Complaint Assistant and file a complaint. A recent article on CNBC had comments from the FTC saying that few people file complaints on these schemes and thus they rarely put in the resources to investigate them. There are two reasons why there are so few complaints:
- People are brainwashed from the beginning that the system “works”, and “the only variable is you.” Thus people feel as if it is their own failure rather than recognizing the system was mathematically set up to fail over 99% of people from the beginning.
- The FTC doesn’t do anything. You leave a complaint and that’s the end of it. The complainant gets no follow-up from the FTC and there’s never any evidence that the complaint is ever read. It’s fundamentally terrible system… but that’s what we have to work with.
With that said, if you’re as upset as I am about people being lied to and defrauded out of their money, please leave a complaint. If you do, please sent me a quick mail. This way, I’ll have an idea of the minimum number of complaints that MonaVie is getting.
MonaVie Mynt
Update: MonaVie has started marketing to college students and those who have recently graduated. These are probably the worst candidates for such overpriced MLM products. They have little income and often high student loans. I believe that MLMs have nowhere else to turn as the general population know that it’s a scam. I think they believe they will catch them early before they’ve gathered the wisdom to know to stay away.
I wrote a whole article about MonaVie Mynt.
[Editor’s Note: This article itself is a constant work in progress. I didn’t have the space to get into explaining the scamming behind MonaVie’s MORE charity. Publication deadlines force me to publish this without proofreading. In the future, I hope to go into more of MonaVie’s products like its RVL line of weight loss, which is a copy of other other MLMs and also a terrible value compared to the equivalents in stores. However, at this point, it does more to help people to get this information in their hands quickly and that means saving some of the editing for another day.]
humiliated says
I saw that on the Amthrax site Spynest. What is of particular interest is the comment of former Black Diamond.http://www.businessforhome.org/2011/02/evolvhealth-and-xowii-merger/comment-page-1/#comment-3633
He says he left a very large paycheck at Monavie to go to Xowii because MV was paying distributors to come over from other companies and they were using religion to sell tools. Riiiggght…so you JUST figured out that they were using religion and enticing other people from other MLMs. If that is the case, you are a complete moron and I wouldn’t be in your downline if you paid me, which you wouldn’t, I would pay YOU.
We all know how principled these Black Diamonds are, don’t we? This has NOTHING to do with Phil not agreeing how the business was run because it has been run like this from the get go. This has everything to do with him not making the kind of money he wanted, so he moved over to Xowii.
Vogel says
What a joke! Does rule number one of the MLM snakeoil juice industry require companies to choose the stupidest name possible for their products (and ideally one that’s rife with arcane symbols and unpronounceable dipthongs).
I had a quick look at their website and the part that made me laugh the most was where they talked about how their product is supported by “scientific research” (research that’s never been seen or published).
The best part was this Aug 2010 press release titled “FUTURECEUTICALS RESEARCH OF ARCHAEA ACTIVE RESULTS IN UNPRECEDENTED ENDORSEMENT”, http://blog.evolvhealth.com/2010/08/futureceuticals-research-of-archaea-active/
…which is directly contradicted by the following disclaimer on another page on the same website, which states:
“Archaea Active and Cellular O2 On Demand are trademarks of Health2o Products, LLC. FutureCeuticals does not endorse the product.”
http://www.evolvhealth.com/product_aactive.asp?co_la=US_EN
What brilliant leadership eh? How could anyone put their faith is such inept, dishonest shmucks.
The only good thing about this company is that it is hastening the well-deserved demise of Monavie. But the lowly distributor who gets dragged over from Monavie to this scam will be a victim twice over. Sad!
Can’t these fools get real jobs? Do they have to build careers based on victimizing and lying to people? Do we really need hundreds of sets of untrained hands to handle beverage products and drive the price through the roof with multiple layers of undeserved pyramid scheme commissions? It’s all so bloody ridiculous. But like the era of the boy bands, this too shall pass.
“Look at the list of top 43 distributors!! ohh ohhh I think a new MONAWAVE is coming but in the form of XOWII!! ”
These top 43 distributors jumped from another MLM and they probably rake in 99.5% of all the income. Not one of them worked his way up from Xowii’s basement. Ah, the myths of MLM.
I wrote a little something on Xowii over on JuiceScam:
http://www.juicescam.com/xowii-lies-about-nutrients-in-xowii-ultimate/
The Salt Lake Tribune published a series of 3 scathing articles on MLMs last week. Monavie is featured prominently. Kudos to the Trib!
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51183138-76/average-companies-distributors-earn.html.csp
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/51175479-78/annual-companies-company-distributors.html.csp
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51182516-76/açai-fruit-juice-makers.html.csp
I don’t know if I can get past the line in the first article: “MonaVie, Larsen said, is building toward $20 billion in annual sales of its products based on a berry from the Amazon jungle.”
I’m building towards in $20 billion in revenues from Lazy Man and Money too :-).
What I found particularly interesting was the lobbying efforts of the Direct Selling Association. The DSA looks to be little more than the political arm of the MLM companies, throwing money around, via the DSA’s political action committee, to coerce politicians and ensure MLM-friendly regulations.
we need to shine some light on the DSA and expose it as one of the roots of the MLM problem.
This spells it out pretty well. The DSA admits to being a DC lobby group. Seems to be its primary function…that and the dissemination of BS MLM-friendly propganda.
http://www.directsellingnews.com/index.php/entries_archive_display/beyond_polls_and_partisanship_representing_your_interests
There are some brave folks at the SLT and they deserve medals and protection, not just kudos, given the amount of interconnectedness between the Utah Attorney General and various MLM businesses and other dubious internet pyramid schemes operating out of that salty state. Much of his campaign funds are derived from those sources….
(In some respects the collusion of interests between the law and business are akin to what happened in Dorset many years ago – the Tolpuddle Martyrs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolpuddle_Martyrs)
See Shurtleff’s Wikipedia article for over 20 links on his doings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Shurtleff#Scandals
MonVie is now viral and using religion and “faith” (which opens a whole new dialogue not being approached here) as a promoting tool. First, my disclaimer is that I am a man of strong faith in Jesus the Christ. Second, it is Biblical that anything presented with the Gospel other than the Gospel is not from God. MonaVie folks, I welcome to be proven wrong. As for the business itself, it makes no logical business sense. You have to buy into the hype to even try and understand how it adds up. Science proves an apple or much cheaper than MonaVie V8 juice is healthier for you. So, in that statement alone, how can MonaVie be better for you (remember you can buy much cheaper “Organic” juices with acai on line or at the local grocery store or health store) and be worth the money? It makes no sense at all and is financially silly. I know and have met some of you that make 6 figures selling this product. I would bet you can sell cars with the same results. There are more “victims” who lose a lot and put their families through needless hardship than success stories (you can easily find this on-line or speak to one who has tried MLM and it doesn’t work…and then they will use their MLM network marketing skills to introduce you to more victims). Now, I am all for the American dream of pursuit of happiness (the right to pursue does not mean guarantee) and financial riches if that is your drive, but at the cost of others? How many of the MonaVie folks have friends and family who no longer speak to them? I have my own business and promote it within the business realm. My family and friends are happy for me and support me and we have great times and growth without any help from my business or theirs. I actually will not do business with my friends or family…and more specifically with my Church or those who I am presenting the gospel…even at the event of financial ruin. I have never met a MLM who can say the same. They have claimed to be able to separate relationships from their “entrepreneurial business” (that some else created and benefits from), but I have yet to find anyone able to truly do this. Whether it’s the car wrap, the “gatherings” of friends who strangely all buy into the same lie, or the “gifts” of juice bottles (save your money and give me a cheap $8 bottle of red wine…it has more “proven” benefits, is cheaper and more appreciated), it’s all the pitch. I have lost friends to this lie and they are ruined. I know of specific MonaVie people who 5 years ago told me that I was missing out and that they would have the last laugh in the end while I was still working hard (Biblical and I do well) and they were living the easy life. Again, that was 5 years ago…since that time, one lost his other business, lost his house and another one and had to borrow money to feed his family. It’s been 5 years and he is still pressing harder. It was divorce or the wife had to join in…she joined in. He is a die hard and fully on board. Where is the reward? This is tragic. Try anything that long and lose money, then I strongly suggest you move on to something else (and not another MLM). I got suckered into going to one of the pitch meetings, which is 70%-80% populated by those already hooked, and the “leader” actually stated that he shared with the rest how his friends and family no longer spoke to him. Everyone laughed…except me and others that were duped into “helping a friend fill a room”. Are you so brain washed that you do not see the pain, depravity and severe loss that goes with that statement? How far gone will you go?
Thanks to Lazy Man taking the time to show the lie. This kind of thing just destroys people and makes a very, very, very, few rich…or even able to keep going.
By the way, The Consumerist is taking nominations for the Worst Company in the America:
http://consumerist.com/2011/02/keep-those-worst-company-in-america-nominations-coming.html
It might be worth sending an email.
You’ll want to get that email in today. The submissions end on noon ET of March 1st.
Done! Thanks for the tip.
Done!
I put my vote in…although I thought twice when I saw “Charlie Sheen” as one of the votes!Then I remembered he is only screwing over 127 employees on the show..not thousands like Larceny & Hartless!
BTW Vogel, nice find on the newspaper articles. It looks like SLC is getting a little embarrassed about their reputation as MLM heaven (or hell, depending on how you view it!)
Has anyone found reputable research done on this product? Let me clarify…any research that has been published and not by those in the back alleys of Rio de Janero or by MonaVie distributors? I’ve been looking for anything supporting MonaVie’s claims of having as much as 6 servings of fruit in one small glass. I’m doing an “intervention”. My friend had “something he wanted and needed to share with me”, so I thought I would return the favor with the bs this thing pushes. Anyone…anyone…? If you are a Chiropractor, please do not answer. We appreciate a good back popping, but when it comes to nutrition, it’s like going to a mechanic to set my broken bone. Thanks!
K2zaJ,
To my knowledge there is no reputable research done on this product. All the research is done by MonaVie Scientific board member, Alex Schauss. In fact, MonaVie Admits AIBMR is the Only Source of Their Biased “Research”. The Senior Director of AIBMR Life Sciences is Alex Schauss. You can see the conflict of interest here.
On the other hand, I have presented irrefutable evidence that 4 Ounces of MonaVie is 1 Serving of Fruit. You can use that to debate what 6 servings of fruit are. Chances are they are making the mistake that I explained at: “Drinking MonaVie is Not Equal to Eating 13 Fruits“
We have been in Monavie and it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. We were under that scam Rick Gutman.
@michael Cheryl, would you care to share your story? We are always curious to see what experiences people have had because I think they are pretty much universal, as they tend to be when cult tactics are involved.
I stumbled upon this page on the MV corporate site:
http://monaviemediacenter.com/news/important-notice-regarding-monavie-and-the-world-progress-report-television-series
It states the following:
“We appreciate and share your enthusiasm for the recent feature story on MonaVie by the World Progress Report television series.”
“As you share this great news, please remember that Joan Lunden’s relationship with the World Progress Report remains only as a host for their educational programming through public television. MonaVie distributors are prohibited from using Joan Lunden’s name and/or likeness in any press releases or other forms of communication. You may mention the World Progress Report; however, no mention of Ms. Lunden is permitted.”
First of all, this “feature story” is just an informercial MV hired the dubious World Progress Report to produce. You can read about them here: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100924/12150911158/world-progress-report-promotes-program-about-scams-helps-hide-all-the-complaints-that-it-s-a-scam.shtml
Second, despite this clear warning NOT to use Joan Lunden’s name (gee, I wonder why she doesn’t want to be tarnished by association with MV), a quick Google search shows the MV cats aren’t heeding that warning. The odd thing is she doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the video.
If you have the stomach to watch the video, you see within 15 seconds that it’s a cheaply produced commercial. Yet MV has the chutzpah to call this a “documentary”! But don’t MLMs save money by not advertising? Instead they plow it all back to the distributors, no? I guess paid “documentaries”, like sports arena deals, don’t count as advertising.
One MonaBot’s comment on the ad: “This is wonderful. Time the rest of the country heard the amazing story of such courageous men.”
Another’s: “monavie is my life”
LOL.
Thanks CGC. That was a great find.
I found the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA1B4Kl4OnE. Going to watch it now.
Great find indeed. I remember watching that infomercial a few weeks ago when they first launched it on the MV website. I just dismissed it as the usual blatantly overhyped exaggerated BS, but I didn’t pay it any more attention than that.
This is just one more in a long, long list of examples attesting to the company’s dishonesty and overarching efforts to deceive people.
Apparently Brig Hart didn’t get the memo because he still has Lunden’s name featured prominently with the video. Such a dishonest ass…and such a pathetically dysfunctional organization.
http://www.r3global.com/blog/2011/01/26/monavie-featured-on-world-progress-report-with-joan-london/
And now the World Progress Report scam is a topic on Juice Scam –
No Vogel, the advisory was against using Joan Lunden’s name — Brig is using Joan London. I guess he’s following the letter of the law, not the spirit.
I noticed that. I’m pretty sure the misspelling isn’t going to help him.
Does anyone watch Big Love on HBO? It’s one of my guilty pleasures. In the last few episodes one of the women got involved with a Utah based juice company. The company is supposed to be Christ and family centered, grossing over a billion dollars while at the same time giving huge amounts of money to people in an undeveloped country. I forget which country it is. Guatemala I think. The berry in the juice was supposed to cure illnesses and help people find their faith.
There is a whole drama that unfolds when those that got her involved start to convince her that those people including her family that didn’t support her were a bad influence. Watching her get sucked into that reminded me so much of myself. It’s actually a little hard for me to watch.
It reminded me a lot of Monavie. So much that I really doubt that it’s a coincidence.
Another quick article written on JuiceScam:
Did Jon M. Taylor, Ph. D Predict a MonaVie Ponzi Scheme?
More Wellmune Shenanigans
I stumbled across a Monavie press announcement declaring that the results of some BS study on Wellmune (an alleged ingredient in Monavie M-mun) were presented at a meeting in Liverpool. According to Monavie’s press release, the ‘research’ (unpublished) allegedly shows that “Wellmune Reduces Duration of Cold/Flu Symptoms in Study of 100 Medical Students”.
http://monaviemediacenter.com/news/page/5/
The press release mentioned that this unpublished study was conducted by Dr. Richard Fuller of The Dove Clinic for Integrated Medicine. Naturally, a name like “The Dove Clinic for Integrated Medicine” just begged for some investigative research. First thing I found out was that it is run by some quack ‘doctor of acupuncture’ named Julian Kenyon, seen here standing astride the rest of the Dove Clinic’s office’s staff (a herd of decidedly unhealthy-looking pachyderms).
http://www.doveclinic.com/site/about_us/default.htm
It turns out Kenyon is not only a quack practitioner but also the founder of the British Society of Integrated Medicine (BSIM), an organization which, not at all surprisingly, appears on the Quackwatch list of questionable organizations.
http://www.quackwatch.com/04ConsumerEducation/nonrecorg.html
According to this website, one of the standing committee members of the BSIM, Dr. Michelle Langdon, was found guilty of “serious professional misconduct” and received a ban from practicing medicine as a result of her quack treatment (homeopathy, dowsing) of an 11-month old child.
http://dcscience.net/improbable.html
On this website, you can witness Kenyon promoting all sorts of quack therapies for cancer.
http://www.canceractive.com/cancer-active-page-link.aspx?n=841
On this website, you can read up on Kenyon’s involvement with the company Xytos.
http://pennyfraud.com/cases/morgan-morgan-stock-loss-recovery-team-initiates-investigation-of-xytos-inc/
According to the above site, Xytos (a penny stock company) was trying to pump up their stock price with this BS press release announcing (seemingly fictitious) experimental results showing that their product is effective in treating cancer.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/XYTOS-Announces-Cancer-bw-1135478301.html?x=0&.v=1
However, the results were never published in a journal; Xytos just disseminated them through this worthless press release. Have a look at the blog comments on the preceding link and you’ll notice that Kenyon himself chimed in to admit that the he was the “head of the medical advisory board” of Xytos, and he makes an implausible denial of ever having been paid for his services.
But the fun doesn’t stop there folks. A little more digging came up with this BBC investigative report describing how Kenyon and his clinic were scamming people with a bogus and thoroughly discredited diagnostic device (electrodermal testing) which is alleged to be able to (but doesn’t really) diagnose allergies.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/10_october/06/winchester_doctor.shtml
And for the coup de gras, I found this webpage showing that Kenyon and the Dove Clinic promote and sell Wellmune, that Kenyon, along with Dr. Fuller (the Wellmune ‘researcher’ mentioned in Monavie’s press release) even went so far as to host a presentation by an executive of Biothera (the manufacturer of Wellmune) at their clinic.
http://www.doveclinic.com/site/news/default.htm
This must be something like the two-hundredth chapter in our ongoing research chronicling Monavie’s circus of quacks, hacks, frauds, felons, snakeoil pushers, flim-flammers, scammers, and con artists.
Here’s the final nail in Kenyon’s coffin. Notice that his Dove Clinic website has a link to buy Wellmune; the text describes it as an ‘external’ link and it redirects to a company called European Nutripharm. The text on the Dove Clinic site says the following:
“Where To Buy ImmiFlex – Containing Wellmune WGP — The Dove Clinic has received a number of enquiries from people who are not patients regarding ImmiFlex. This is available for purchase through European Nutripharm (external link).”
http://www.doveclinic.com/site/news/default.htm
This site this is linked to, European Nutripharm, the sole UK distributor of Wellmune, refers to the Dove Clinic as a “partner clinic” –
http://www.e-nutripharm.co.uk/
– and elsewhere, they state the following:
“ENP works closely with The Dove Clinic for Integrated Medicine and procures many of the products used in its treatments”
http://www.e-nutripharm.co.uk/
One would assume, based on the information on all of these websites, that European Nutripharm is independent of the Dove Clinic; the European Nutripharm website mentions nothing at all about Kenyon. But lo and behold, according to this site, Kenyon and European Nutripharm are one in the same; this website shows that he is director of the company.
http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/european-nutripharm
And here’s the final coffin nail ““ an FDA violation notice showing that a shipment to the US from European Nutripharm was rejected because they shipment contained an illegally marketed drug. This was a violation of section 505(a) and 801(a)(3) of the US Food and Drug Act.
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/importrefusals/ir_detail.cfm?EntryId=112-0136645-0&DocId=1&LineId=1&SfxId=
And as if that isn’t bad enough, here’s a newsletter from the Dove Clinic describing how none other than Monavie spokesman Paul Clayton (undisputed King of the a$$holes) visited their clinic to sow his BS about Wellmune.
http://www.doveclinic.com/downloads/contributedocs/E-Newsletter-Sept10.pdf
On second thought, maybe this is the final coffin nail — Monavie corporate turning a blind eye to all the distributors who provided glowing but illegal testimonials about M-mun in the comments section of their article about the Dove Clinic’s bogus quack research on Wellmune.
http://monaviemediacenter.com/news/wellmune%c2%ae-reduces-duration-of-coldflu-symptoms-in-study-of-100-medical-students
My favorite was this quote from ‘Coach’: “I teach and coach in a high school setting and since drinking wellmune have not had any illness in 2 winters!!!!!!!”
Two of the other illegal comments were posted by distributors who actually provided links to their distributor web pages. Here they are:
Gary Stevens (ID# 2799800): “I’ve been drinking Mmun for about 3 months now and am currently in a household where 2 others are constanly sick with a flu that just doesn’t want to let go. This has been going on for almost a month now and I have not been sick. Now they are drinking Mmun as well and are already getting better when nothing else worked!”
Laura Valentine (ID# 2187311): “I live by this stuff! I tell ya, This Substitute Teacher/Guest Teacher would not go into a classroom of sniffling kids without a 2 oz shot of Mmun each morning! I have not been sick with the usual annual flu or usual strep or bronchitis in the past two winters! It is the BEST thing EVER!! I’m always available for work!”
Most of the comments were posted 2 months ago; and we know (based on CGCs recent post) that Monavie monitors incoming comments on ther website and censures them when they say anything negative about the company. And yet they fully condone it when their distributors blatantly break the law on their own website. Shameless, disgusting bastards the lot of them! They’ll burn in hell for this.
Amazing Vogel. I must admit, I am really tired of Monavie getting away with all of this and I just wish the FDA and FTC would shut them down already.
Great work, Vogel.
I have second Humiliated’s sentiments, I’ve been more than fed up with the inaction of authorities for quite some time now. The breaches of the law are blatant with the company itself now even giving little regard to same by publishing such testimonials.
I think it’s obvious Monavie aren’t going to last but it would be an enormous advantage for the average consumer to have all those involved exposed for the fraudsters they are – BEFORE they move on to the next scam.
Great research Vogel.
Unfortunately, you’ve only provided more evidence, more facts, and more proof that MonaVie is a nonsensical scam. But for most of those involved (and getting scammed) it’s a matter of faith, not evidence and reason.
BTW DeAnna, let us know how that plotline on Big Love unfolds. Maybe the juice scammers will be hauled away in handcuffs.
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” – Benjamin Franklin
I believe MV have helped lower my cholesterol from 235 to under 200. (with no changes in diet or exercise)… I have never sold MV. I feel healthier. But you decide. Believe the pharmaceutical companies they are not interested in making money nor do they give money to congress.
I don’t even know how to respond to that nonsensical comment, DennisM.
Dennis-
Lay off the crack pipe.
Thanks,
switch
DennisM states “I believe MV have helped lower my cholesterol from 235 to under 200.”
Gee Dennis, how on earth could that be?
Particularly given that Monavie specifically state that the products (including Pulse) are not intended to replace or mimic the activity/effects or benefits of any medications, that the plant sterol effects and benefits in MonaVie Pulse in relation to heart health and cholesterol are “significantly less than that found in drugs”, that MonaVie Pulse does not cure/ treat/mitigate, or prevent serious cholesterol problems AND that Monavie Pulse is actually intended for “healthy people, not for people with heart or cholesterol diseases”.
http://monavieuniversity.zaah.net/?s=fruit+juice+products
Therefore given the above, it’s reasonable to conclude that you couldn’t attribute Monavie to any improvements in your cholesterol levels.
Suffice to say, we’ve decided for sure. We’ve decided you’re pretty much full of crap.
I would just like to point out that monavie has been featured on shows like rachel ray, and the doctors and they praise the product highly. The juice has even been on different news broadcasts where they have tested the properties of the juice, and peoples testamonies as to how the product has changed their lives. Youtube has all of these videos. I feel like that is much more reputable than a personal blog, plus if you google or bing, or whatever your preferred search engine is there are scientific facts on these products.
Britt,
I’d like to point out that The Doctors did not praise the product. In fact, they seemed to say that other products are better. I haven’t seen the Rachel Ray spot, but remember that she’s pretty much a chef. She can tell you how to make things taste good.
Please see this article on the testimonies: http://www.juicescam.com/monavie-medical-testimonies-are-pointless/
Please cite your “scientific facts” that Google and Bing bring up. They bring up this website which discusses all those scientific facts. You can read more of them at JuiceScam.com or at WikiPedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MonaVie)
Please read the previous comments so you don’t seem like a complete idiot.
It’s possible that the MV Pulse has improved DennisM’s heart health, which in turn has helped him to be able to lower his cholesterol. Just a thought. I don’t sell or drink MV. I am just researching it.
Renee, many things are possible, but it’s a stretch that it would have that effect.
For example: http://www.juicescam.com/monavie-pulse-is-not-very-effective-for-lowering-cholesterol/
Additionally, there are much, much cheaper and much, much better options available: http://www.juicescam.com/monavie-pulse-vs-cholestoff-in-lowering-cholesterol/
Brit, the problem is that you sound like all the rest of the brainwashed, “Oh, this one gonna work this time” folks. They state and claim all this scientific research and facts with no evidence. They state very vaguely, “you can find it on Google, Bing, etc., but never, never give actual evidence. The only evidence I have found is that one serving of MV is the same as an apple. Also, blueberries appear to have more antioxidants than acai…as to the edible parts. If I’m off on this, let me know. My “friends” have stated it is all scientific, but have yet to bring any proof and this is what I have found. Brit, scroll up…most of the articles are provided by Lazy Man and peeps. Thanks again guys for this website. This cr8p is actually ruining lives. Love how guys state they will make it big while losing everything they have (money, homes, family, marriages, faith). Peace out!
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This is just so damn sad. Blue Diamond Harp Purewal whoring out her 10-year old daughter. Just bloody awful!
http://www.alljuicedteam.com/all-juiced-team/videos/10-yr-old-prospecting-dont-complicate-it
We would love o share our story. Your really goint to like it. We signed up in Monavie 10 months ago under David Berek, we were told to buy 12 cases a week and give the bottles away. We did, so our business grew fast for 3 weeks then came along Rick Gutman, David’s best friend telling us that he built his business for him and if we really want to make so money we need to get under Rick. So he suggested we sign up using my wife’s last name prior to getting married. We did at this point rick said he was a Black Diamond making over 1.8 million dollars a year. So e are fire up ready to run so first we take our brand new jeep wrap it in Monavie stickers because Rick said branding is important. Then he had us make a video of him driving around in our Jeep and stopping us on the street and getting us in to Monavie into Monavie, we were already in. Even Monavie posted it to there website to promote how great Rick was doing.Next he said you need to get on the road and past out bottles that’s how all the leaders did it. He suggested a motor home, truck and or trailer. So we dropped a 100,000 on a new truck and trailer and headed down south for this new adventure. Forgot one thing sold everything in our home first, leased it out then left. Upon getting to So Cal we were introduced to all of Rick’s friends they said how great he was and we were going Black Diamond. To make this short we put in over 400 people spent over 20,000 on the juice giving it away only to find out the this Black Diamond had no house no black Mercedes like they promote, him wife even left him with their child to move to another state. As this is falling apart Rick blamed the IRS for his misfortune, saying that they were taking all his money. Only to find out it was only 252.00 a week exactly 1/3 of his pay a week. So we stared to check his story finding out he never worked with Robert Kiyosaki like he states, we can keep going but why. After telling Monavie Corporate about this they said there’s noting they can do about it. WHAT noting your Momentum video states by Dalin that they hold all distributors accountable and they should have high standards but to to no avail.This is only a partial story (lol) Just be very careful to trust anything anyone of them tell you.
Michael Cheryl,
That is an amazing story. It seems like what can happen in extreme cases.
One thing that I’d doesn’t quite fit, though. After this whole experience, you’d turn around and say, “Man, that was an awesome experience. Let me do it again with Revvnrg? It’s like losing all your money at a casino, then painstaking earning your fortune back, only to gamble it at another casino. Except that with casinos at least there’s a significant chance at winning as opposed to these scams.
Would everyone please shut the hell up about mona vie being a bad company. If it was would oprah have had it on her show? Would the founder dalin larsen got 2009 2010 entrepenuer of the year? Come on!!!theres other teams out there than just brig and lita harts. Such as a leadership development company with awesome foumders named chris brady and orrin woodward. The name of that company is call TEAM. Its the-team.biz. They have a leadership developement system distributors use to help them better all aspects of their lives and build good rock solid life long dedicated members in a community that are all good leaders. And everyone in business has to have an awesome product or service and both these companys have exactly this.
Billy harper,
Did your upline inform you that Oprah sued Monavie for trying to use her name to promote their product? Here’s an excerpt from the lawsuit…
“These Defendants are willfully capitalizing on Plaintiffs’ valuable reputation and intellectual property rights to lure consumers into ordering their Infringing Products on the false premise that they have been tested or recommended by Ms. Winfrey and/or Dr. Oz when they have not. Defendants are fabricating quotes or falsely purporting to speak in Dr. Oz and/or Ms. Winfrey’s voice about specific brands or products that neither of them has endorsed. Defendants conduct has gravely injured Plaintiffs’ reputations.”
Interesting… She’s claiming they are “fabricating quotes”, which they clearly have a reputation for doing. You need to wake up and realize you’ve been fed a bunch of bull…
@Michael Cheryl – I remember watching this video some months ago. Did the link get taken down, and if not, do you have it handy again? From what I remember of the video, the people being prospected were supposed to be random people, not people (you) who were already in!
Vogel, that was vile. The cute little girl unknowingly “nabs” the prospect and then the parents swoop in for the kill. That little girl should be out, I dunno, being a little girl, instead she is going to look back at this time and see how she was whored out by her parents FOR MONETARY GAIN. They are probably deluded enough to rationalize this by thinking ‘she WANTS to do this, she is HAVING fun, we are spending time together”. Bullshit. I don’t know what is worse, the fact that they have convinced her (read ‘brainwashed”)into thinking that this is a normal childhood, or the fact that they are so DESPERATE to sell that damned juice/cult that they are willing to sell their baby’s soul for this. That little girl will grow up and her memories will be of being involved in a cult and having had a hand in it.
I am so F’ing mad right now, if that woman were standing before me, I would slap her across the face. I feel like calling child services.
This just reminds me of some of the children I saw who were constantly bombarded with the Monavie “speak”, they began to talk like their parents and they slowly morphed into Stepford Children.
I have to stop writing or I will start really spouting off some inappropriate language. If ANYONE in the Monavie ranks thinks that what Harp did was justified/ok, then you deserve to burn in hell along side her.
Billy-
Anything to say to Tarin’s post?
Questions for Billy….could you please give me and the newbies a little history behind Team and any legal disputes/problems your “founders” may have had in the past or heck, even present? Before the newbie gets involved, I think it’s only fair to let them know about any problems whatsoever. Afterall they are investing their hard earned income aren’t they? Also, could you please educate us on Mr. Larsen and his previous juice called Royal Tongan Limu that was shut down by the FDA for false medical claims/testimonies? Sound familiar yet Mr. harper?
How’s the “active” tasting now mr. harper?
Kids says No Monavie RVL for me and makes a stand to fight back the scam!!! SAY NO TO RVL!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld3LX7gdjEw
Alot of these MLM and network marketing companies present their “opportunity” in this fast-food, slick-ass’ Persian Bazaar manner where they talk about dreams, they show you pictures of people with fancy boats, cars, houses and proceed to talk about how you can have the same kind of success, if you just follow “there system”, when in actually only
a small percentage of people actually achieve success. People in today’s economy are very skeptical and alot of people who have been involved with MLM or network marketing have been scammed out of their money.
I quit team mona vie today. why would i want to be apart of business with a bunch of liers!? these people offer you nothing but false dreams and hopes, y’all that are still with team mona vie distributors, y’all need to come to the realization that y’all been drinking the purple kool aid for way too long.
Uhmmmjuicy your video wasn’t there? Now I am curious!
Destroyteammonavie…way to go! You have saved yourself a ton of cash along with your dignity! What was the thing that “tipped you off”? How long were you involved?
Scam! What the f–k are they trying to sell, an idea or a product? Had the pleasure of telling one of their guys to get the f–k out of my shop. Just opened a new business as a 32 yr old.. he was simply praying on me for money. Good thing he sucked and I could see right thru his crap.
I was just reflecting back on the evolution (or devolution) of Monavie’s primary advertising slogans.
First it was “Monavie…drink it, feel it, share it.”
Next it was: “Monavie…not just the best company in the world, but the best company for the world.”
Now it’s: “Monavie…a more meaningful life”
I’m just wondering what’s next now that their BS scam is unraveling at the seams. Maybe something like:
“Monavie…please help me, I’m desperate”
or…
“Monavie…shhh, don’t tell anyone what I just did to you or else”.
Scared asks “What the f–k are they trying to sell, an idea or a product?”
Exactly! There’s something fundamentally wrong with a business when you find yourself asking that question.
However, when you listen to the sales pitch you’ll find that Monavie distributors are in the business of selling the opportunity/distributorships – the product really is irrelevant and is merely the means to camouflage this. Or more accurately, it’s the means to disguise the investment into the pyramid scam.
Vogel, here’s hoping we’re seeing the demise of Mona-scam. It’d be long overdue too…
Yes, it definitely seems like the slogan has gone downhill.
I think I might have figured out the email with the new hosting. Let’s hope that people are getting emails if they’ve subscribed.
Wow! I missed alot of comments! Email is working now, Lazy Man. On the website Vogel posted, I found the following quote which really interested me:
“We have a great group of people who understand that the value is in the work, not the results.”
Finally the truth is out. Blue diamonds want people to work for them despite not receiving any positive results from doing so.
I just joined MV today coz my best friend’s mum’s (54 years old) being drinking it for a year and she told me she used to feel tired all the time and her skin looked dull before, but after she started drinking MV it had improved her health and her sleeping quality, and she now has vibrant skin. She also claimed that the dark age spots on her face appears to be a lot lighter than before and that’s what her daughter had noticed too. All of these had made me believe that this thing would work and ordered 3 cases (12 bottles) for myself and my mum.
I should’ve got on the internet and visited this website before I order, now I feel I got ripped $400 bucks! CRAP!!
It’s not too late Violet — just cancel the order and demand a full refund. No problem.
Signed p for it because of a friend, thought I had until a certain date to cancel tried a few days before id and password were not accepted. Before I could get help, what do you know the payment went through 3 days before I had written down it was supposed to come out. Have not called to fix it but did put a stop payment on it. I was stupid to sign up!!
The stuff was not that great anyway.
This crap has been around in the south for years. I don’t believe in it I have used it and its crap. If you really want something to make you feel better buy a juicer and try fresh fruits and veggies! Better yet grow your own veggies and you won’t have to worry about what been sprayed on them. Now that works and you see exactly what your getting!!!!
I placed my order last Saturday, and I forgot to take my order & account number with me to work today so I couldn’t cancel my order in time. Called my credit card company, they said they can’t do anything once the order has gone through.
I had been told by the person who signed me up to this that the product will arrive on Tuesday which is tomorrow! Does anyone know if I can send them this crap back and get a refund??
I feel so stupid, I thought my friend’s mum was selling me some great product so I signed up straight away, should’ve stopped and did my research first before I commit to anything.
Violet,
Here is MonaVie’s return policy: http://www.monavie.com/faq/return-policy
Sounds like you can get 90% of your money back as long as:
1) Product must be returned within ninety (90) days of original date of purchase.
2) Returned products must be in resalable condition.
Those should be the case as you haven’t received shipment yet. It is pretty poor on MonaVie that they won’t give you 100% of your money back as you haven’t even received the product yet.
You’ll find instructions on that web page as well.
Well spotted, @CollegeFreshman. From http://www.alljuicedteam.com/users/harp-purewal
This protestant work ethic thing reminds me of the (deliberately ironic) words placed over the entrances to Nazi death camps, most famously Auschwitz – Arbeit macht frei – which means;
Royal Tongan Limu – devious and crooked.
Monavie – devious and disturbing.
What next?
Strangely,
Wow, that quote is in clear conflict with my central tenants and one of my favorite John Wooten quotes, “Never mistake activity for achievement.”
That said, the quote from that link that really stuck out to me was:
They effectively conned this guy to put up $1000 up front (in the 12-case bulk order) and subscribe to around a $400/mo. subscription… all on his credit card. Can we please lock this guy in a room with Suze Orman for 5 minutes?
@Lazyman That John Wooten quote resonates very effectively with our own dear UK Foreign Minister who was effectively criticised last week on a UK TV show called “Question Time” as he apparently works 18 hour days, but very badly. It’s on YouTube.
Now back to MV. This is what Tammy and Phil Poulin claimed on their place in All Juiced Up, which is turning out to be treasure trove of oddities (Norwegian body builder…).
Wikipedia quotes many causes for carpal tunnel syndrome which is a numbness in the hand. It’s a nerve that runs down your inner wrist to your hand. Myself and other cyclists are familiar with it as improper cycle position on a bicycle can cause it. Alternatively, switching riding positions regularly makes it go away as does ceasing cycling altogether.
– but I’ve never heard of fruit juice consumption, (the kind of fruit juice that Monavie and boss Larsen say “does not treat or cure any disease”), being used in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome. And on a quick-ish check online, no one else has either, apart from Tammy and Phil Poulin who flog Monavie fruit cocktails.
Amazing co-incidence, eh?
I actually like that quote:
“More energy, better sleep and symptoms of carpal tunnel gone.”
Gramatically this sentence says that while my symptoms of carpal tunnel are gone, I lost all my energy and ability to sleep well along with it!
Anyone hear of Operation Empty Promises that was just released earlier this month? Operation Empty Promises is a nation wide crackdown on business opportunity rip-offs by the FTC, State Attorneys General and the Division of Justice aimed at stopping business opportunity scams and educating consumers about how to avoid them. So far there is only one pyramid scheme MLM company on that list Fortune Hi Tech Marketing. Monavie can make the list of rip-off companies if enough complaints are forward to this operation.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/03/emptypromises.shtm
The List:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2011/03/110302emptypromisesstate.pdf
Hi Lazyman, thanks for your info but I wasn’t able to access http://www.monavie.com/faq/return-policy coz the website directs me straight to the Australian site where there’s no return policy info. However, I managed to call them today and told them I’d like to return the product. You are right, they can only give me 90% refund, not including the 1 year shipping I’ve signed up for originally. Lost $100 in total but I’m glad that I didn’t get sucked into it further more.
Ironically, my boyfriend is a medical scientist, after he read the content on the bottle he told me straight away that this thing is just an expensive normal bottle of fruit blend and gave me an hour lecture on how things work and not work. I just want to slow down the signs of aging but seriously, there’s nothing in the world you can do apart from living a healthy lifestyle and everything else is just all in the genes.
I find it so funny to listen to you all bash a product that you don’t know much about. First off there are so many products that claim they have these berry’s, but if you do look up these berries, you would learn that they lose their antioxidants after they are taken off the trees, which is why Monavie is the one product that actually does have them because they have a patented process that no one else can use. I feel bad for you people that look at this as a scam, my boyfriend and his father are both on the team, meaning they are in the business, they both make good money from that, in fact my boyfriends father is close to financial freedom meaning he’s going to be making are 50,000 a year from this product. I also know people that have yes drank the product and over a period of time have had something amazing happen to them. It’s not going to do anything over night people, if you eat MD all day you’re not going to get fat the next day. My point isn’t to convince anyone it’s not a scam because I know the truth, but for those of you that do want to get into the business you should find out where the Tuesday meeting is around your house because they will teach you a lot. And you don’t have to be in the business if you don’t want to, the meeting is free your first time, and you’ll learn a lot. You can just be a consumer of the product also. For those of you out there that need the extra money, it works, and it keeps you healthy. It’s not a walk in the park to make money but I know a lot of people that have been able to retire in the TWENTIES! Making over 100,000 a a month, so if you feel as if it’s a scam, walk away you’re not the type of person the “Team” is looking for. I hope I could be of help to some people!
Amber,
I find it funny to listen to you support a product that you don’t know much about. For example, did you know that:
– MonaVie uses EarthFruits Mid-Grade Acai (and Doesn’t Harvest or Freeze-Dry Their Own)?
– Men’s Journal proved that MonaVie lacks nutrition… including antioxidants. The berries don’t matter if it doesn’t make it into the product
– MonaVie is less than 2% freeze-dried acai, which explains for the patented process.
– Forbes Magazine called Team is a Pyramid Scheme, which is illegal in the United States (and dozens of other countries)
– Orrin Woodward makes Charlie Sheen seem sane
– Dozens of people had horrible experiences with TEAM MonaVie. See the comments and skip to #163 that starts with “So here I am husbandless…”
– MonaVie Medical Testimonies are Pointless. There isn’t anything amazing happening to anyone.
– 99.64% of people lose money in MonaVie
– It’s Not a Matter of Effort, it’s a Mathematical Certainty.
– Finally, you’ve bought into their brainwashing hook, line and sinker. That’s the scam. You don’t see it because You are the person who loves woo. If you don’t stop and educate yourself, it wont be too long before people are sending me emails like: My Friend is Brainwashed by MonaVie, Help!
I hope I could be of help to you Amber.
Amber said: “the meeting is free your first time, and you’ll learn a lot.”
Wait a minute, you have to pay to go to these ‘meetings’ where you are spoonfed lies and misinformation?
Amber, there isn’t one factual claim in your comment, it’s all rumors and hearsay. It’s a shame that lazy man knows so much more about monavie than its salesforce and I wonder how many of them would still support it if they knew what they were really doing and what was really happening to them.
@Amber said:
Pulling the real meaning of this sentence into focus, you mean that the type of person the “team” is looking for is one that can’t spot scams.
Thanks for that. Just clearing it up in my mind. I learned a lot. I didn’t even have to pay.
Amber said ” I know a lot of people that have been able to retire in the TWENTIES! Making over 100,000 a a month”…
According to the latest ids, only those black diamond and above make $100,000 a month, and not even all of them make that.
http://www.monavie.com/public/uploads/global/2010/11/income_disclosure_statement.pdf
Here are those black diamonds and above. I don’t see any in thier 20’s. Could you name even three on this list you know that are in their 20’s and are making that money?
http://monavieonthemove.com/fieldleaders.php
Well, I’m going to take the advice that was given to us by one of our very well respected bloggers on here and sit back and watch amber dig her own hole with her Team/juice business.
I do have one question for amber though, if I told you that I had a business opportunity called, Royal Tongan Limu quite similar to the one you have now,….would you take the bait?
Are Monavie Distributors Paying for Henry Marsh’s Son’s University Education?
I just stumbled across this article describing how Monavie is paying for a full ride scholarship for James Marsh to attend Wharton Business School in Philadelphia.
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-graduate-schools/paying/articles/2011/03/21/persuade-your-boss-to-pay-for-college-or-grad-school
That’s a very expensive MBA. I can only assume that James is the son/relative of Monavie executive and co-founder Henry Marsh. If this is in fact the case, it would not be the first example of nepotism in the house of Monavie (e.g. paying for Black Diamond Steve Merritt’s daughter Rainie to attend wakeboarding competitions around the world, Dallin Larsen hiring his relatives as company executives and to head the MORE Project, getaways in Brazil, etc.).
Rather than feathering their own nests, these shameless self-serving pricks at Monavie should be more considered with the fact that 99% of their distributors aren’t earning any money. If I were a distributor, I’d want heads on pikes over this.
I found James Marsh’s LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmmarsh. Sees like it could be a fit.
Don’t you know that that was just a “mistake” Switch? It was a minor “marketing blunder”…& everyone deserves a second chance…. to destroy people’s lives! I can hear them now!!I swear, that man could murder someone in cold blood for taking the last cheese doodle, and these distributors would still defend him and Brig.
Have you all seen the new Monavie “Buy Now Button” that Amthrax has written about? Apparently you can purchase it on line, without becoming a distributor and credit will be given to the highest “Gold” in the area, or you can put in a Distributor number and they will be credited. Weird right? There is some dissention among the ranks regarding this practice according to the Monavie website, although I am sure that any negative comments will be removed forthwith, as per cult protocol.
Are they just trying to sell any excess product before the company goes kaboom now that the FTC is starting to take a closer look at these companies? Or, are they trying to get away from the Pyramid scheme accusations by having some f*cked up attempt to “retail” this product? Either way, they are f*cking their distributors…
Ironic that they preach about education being a waste of time and money to the uneducated masses that they victimize, yet they would never dream of allowing their children to go this route in life. Hypocrisy at it’s finest, what the execs at Monavie do best!
Didn’t you also find that Marsh was using MORE project funds to help build a private school for another one of his kids? I couldn’t imagine anyone doing any of this in a “real” corporation.
Thanks for reminding me about that school Marsh was funding (the one his son attended); I had forgotten all about it.
It’s no wonder that nearly all of the distributors are broke, given that the execs use the company’s revenue like a slush fund to support their own friends and families. These guys are so dishonest they make Lehman Brothers and AIG seem like a bunch of saints.
Ah yes humiliated…how can I forget about the “mistake”.
Yes, it’s kind of like that crook getting his second chance to use the same style mask but different color to go rob his last bank and run.
This isn’t on the topic of discussion right now (although I agree that the distributors funding the excesses of the pharaohs is vile to say the least) but I just found that there was actually a 2008 Canadian IDS that was released which I hadn’t noticed previously.
http://media.monavie.com/pdf/canada/ids.pdf
I’d previously started looking at the 2009 Canadian IDS so I might actually finish it given an updated IDS from the company doesn’t appear forthcoming. Although anyone can see the numbers are going to be much the same across the board.
Aussie, I wrote a little article about it here: http://www.juicescam.com/monavies-global-income-disclosure-statement-vs-monavies-canada-income-disclosure-statement/
Why does Marsh need business education? Surely he’s learned all the crookery he needs to know already from pops & co?
In fact, why do any of them need any “business credentials”? They’ve done quite well with their “emperors new clothes” business(es) already.
The only thing I can think of is that it adds another air of legitimacy to their credentials, so that the newbies have even less qualms about starting.
I can see it now, on the next inspirational video of the next motivational meeting …
Or something like that. Pass the sick bag.
Thought you guys might want to vomit all over this posting on BrigHart.com
http://www.r3global.com/blog/2011/03/08/brig-hart-on-the-christian-television-network/
What a horrible bunch of shit, from beginning to end! All those unfounded claims and all that fake humility.
Holy crap! With all that money Brig claims to be making you’d think he’d be able to afford a haircut that doesn’t make him look like he stuck his head under a power mower. Who was his inspiration for that coif…Donald Trump? Moe the Stooge?
WasADistributor,
You got it right when you said we could “vomit” on that link. Brig Hart is so disturbing on so many levels. It made me cringe to watch that.
What’s worse is the “followers” that praised him like he’s a god in the comment section.
These people are sick in the head, plain and simple.
Phew….luckily I’ve learned to keep my keyboard out of harms way when it comes to watching putrid garbage from these people! Talk about sickening, I could barely stop cringing from the get go.
Brig should be behind bars, not on a Christian television program, and he deserves to be made someone’s b*tch, just as he’s been screwing people for so many years.
That haircut alone would warrant 6 months if he were to be picked up by the fashion police! :-)
Gasp… Just had to order a gross of sick bags off eBay to handle that one. Thanks @WasADistributor….;-)
The thing is, viewed from the standpoint of it as a presentation and TV show (which it was), it was just soooo sloooow and sooooo boring. The “chat” and intros were glacial, the interactive genuineness soooo false and the sales pitch soooo obvious that only the dimmest of folks would surely be pulled in by that rubbish? Surely?
They say that what happens in California happens in the rest of the USA 10 years later, and then 10 years after that the UK follows suite.
If so, then Crikey! Have we got some crap TV on the way, or what? It’s the digital revolution folks!
Tarin: I hate to admit this but I was once seduced by Brig Hart’s personality. What is purely evil is that he says all the things most Christian people want to hear, that “God WANTS you to be wealthy. Just look at me.” He guises it all under the banner of helping people. Make no mistake, Brig is a master manipulator at the highest level. I once heard a training tape by a Black Diamond Rob Alwin and he told this heart wrenching and very believable story where Brig was out to dinner with other Diamonds and he was so upset that he forgot to order dinner for the limo driver outside that he made a ruckus and ordered the waiter to bring a plate of food out to the driver pronto! It was all full of false pride.
See a lot of Christians want to help this world in various ways so when you get a guy promising you a sure fire way to achieve that end, it is very hard to resist. Coupled with the fact that Brig’s lifestyle appeals to greed, it makes it even harder to discern the truth. As well, his supposed life story is almost the epitome of the rags to riches story and who doesn’t like that? http://www.brighart.com/about-brig-lita-hart
WasADistibutor, I can see how he tries to tap into people’s religious beliefs for his own gain. It only makes him more sick to look at.
I’m so sorry you got sucked into that and I know how you feel.
It is true that people are attracted to promises of wealth and good health.
My ex was not religious at all. He was more into the dream of owning multiple fancy cars, great vacations and financial freedom (the whole greed end of it). He idolized Brig and all of the other Diamonds. What baffled me is the speed in which they work. One week I had never heard of these people and the next they were part of EVERY conversation. I just never understood why he couldn’t see how unresonable it all sounded. He was all about $$$$$ and I guess they sensed that and pushed him in that way.
Just curious, how long were you involved with them and what was your tipping point to get out?
I was in for exactly one full year. Tipping point for me was all the promises that my upline were making never came true so I saw it for what it really was…..a scam.
I watched the video in post 79. I was first struck that Mrs. Hart suffered from a near fatal bout with Epstein Barr. It seems “fatal cases are extremely rare with Epstein Barr”.
http://www-epsteinbarrvirus.com/blog/complications-of-mono/can-epstein-barr-virus-glandular-fever-or-mononucleosis-be-fatal/
It’s possible, but extremely rare. According to Wikipedia, it is “also called human herpesvirus 4 (HHV-4), is a virus of the herpes family, which includes herpes simplex virus 1 and 2, and is one of the most common viruses in humans. It is best known as the cause of infectious mononucleosis.” and “In the United States, about half of all five-year-olds and 90–95% of adults have evidence of previous infection.”
So they go to a homeopath to cure this. If you are not familiar with Homeopathy, it works on the idea that like cures like. So for example, if caffeine keeps you awake, the way to cure insomnia is with a very small dose of caffeine. When I say small, I mean very small. It is without exageration that the dilution could be the equivalent of one drop of coffee in a swimming pool full of water. According to Wikipedia a homeopathic remedy with a strength of 12c has a 60% probability of containing one molecule of original material if one mole of the original substance was used. Basically, he treated her near fatal disease with water, or more accurately, placebo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy
And this lead him to consuming more natural foods and eventually monavie? No wonder there is such an anti-medicine attitude at monavie, he claims to have shunned an actual doctor to treat his cancer and instead went with homeopathy. I fear for those who listen to this man.
I was also struck that he claimed he was responsible for 80% of monavie’s sales. Could it be that TEAM and all the other leaders account for only 20%?
Also, regarding that video, I forgot to mention how at 20:00 it is disclosed that Brig met with the owners of Monavie (assuming Larson) and the owners did not know who he was or that he was in Amway. Is it likely that Larson, who’s whole career is in MLM, would not know of the top MLM rep in the world?
I also enjoyed Brig’s comment “I am in the business of selling people on their hopes and dreams”.
dtm quotes
“I am in the business of selling people on their hopes and dreams”.
I recall what the representatives of Amway stated when defending the pyramid scheme accusations
“Amway is not in business to sell distributorships and is not a pyramid distribution scheme.”
http://www.mlmlegal.com/amway.html
Unless Brig is selling FRUIT JUICE (which Monavie purport to be in the business of), then this is clearly the most blatant admission of running a pyramid scheme!
And how is it that the distributors STILL can’t see the fundamental flaws of the business they’re pursuing – which according to Brig is selling hopes and dreams?!
The whole thing makes me both sick and livid that it has been allowed to continue for so long.
Brig Hart makes 100% illegal and false testimonies about his health and how MonaVie cured his skin cancer around the 17:30 mark. Take another listen. This needs to be reported to the FDA. How blatant can he get?
http://www.r3global.com/blog/2011/03/08/brig-hart-on-the-christian-television-network/
Wow, there are times when I’m a little slow research this stuff because I’ve got a lot of other stuff going on. Tonight I’ve taken an hour and half to watch the video that mention. Unfortunately their server is incredibly slow and I can only watch 30 seconds at a time without waiting another 5 minutes for the next 30 seconds.
I’m only halfway through (not up to the 17:30 mark), and I’m beyond throwing up. I’m upset with the show itself. For a religious show they put a lot of emphasis about 150K cars at the beginning. I’ll be the first to say that I don’t read the Bible every night, but I would like to think that those who follow Christ would take up with Mother Teresa and how she conducted her life. I didn’t see her hocking juice nor do I see her driving around in a sports car. She never talked about how some cars come and some cars go, which I think is how Brig Hart put it.
No doubt that this should be reported. This is absolutely disgusting. And the way they bring their lord and savior jesus christ into this is just flat out revolting.
The couple hosting it seem to be as fake as they come too. And what the hell is with these husband’s wives who act as some puppet along side their husband’s cheering them on all the time? Talk about a reprogrammed robot or clone of some kind but seems to be the norm everywhere you look upon in mlm….bone-chilling to say the least. I can’t even fathom what the orders/commands are inside their home.
“Leadership” based on a bottle of fruit juice….sick,…. absolutely sick.
I couldn’t agree more. Did you notice the part where Brig lied about Monavie being preservative free? What a jackass! Monavie is chock full of $hitty preservatives like sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate.
How can he bring himself to lie so blatantly about so many things? What a loathsome sorry excuse for a human being. I wretch every time I have to look at his stupid bowl-cut-topped reptile face.
I’m sure that the BS factor in his ghost-written autobiography is off the charts.
To all of you, I must beg your forgiveness , I could not make it through the whole program. Your gag reflexes must be weaker than mine as I shut it off about 12 minutes in.
The whole thing reeked of “The Secret” which talks about visualizing something as if it were already yours and the principle of the “Law of Attraction”. The “Secret” irritated me because of it’s focus on gaining material wealth and this alleged Christian program appears to be a complete rip off of this book/movie. It just makes it that much worse to me because it is SUPPOSED to be a CHRISTIAN program and this intense focus on materialism violates the basic principles of Christianity, from what I know.
Seriously, Dateline needs to do an expose on that POS Hart and his lying ass. Quite ballsy for him to bold face lie, right there on TV. Besides not being able to afford a decent hairstylist, it appears his legal counsel are either sub par or non existant if they are allowing him to say the things that you all quote him as saying.
Is it just me or does he look EXACTLY like Jim Carey’s character in “Dumb & Dumber”? Quite fitting actually.
Monavie had done a great job on their web site when I first checked them out, it was polished. However when I saw Brig Harts web site several years ago it started me wondering about the whole scam. I pray that the FDA or some other government
agency delivers him to the place he belongs and I hope that it isn’t much longer!
I was brought eating acai berry since I’m native to the Amazon region and it’s a building block. All I can say surely is that in very part of the world there are fruits, vegetable, meat dark/white, fish, that are peculiar to a given region of the world, that will be sufficient to supply all the nutrients we need throughout our lives. Anything beyond that carries too much chemicals/conservatives/artificial coloring/taste etc…So my suggestion is stick to what your region gives in abundance and will be fine.
Just checking in but it has been a while since anyone posted here about this CRAP product.
This is sick!
http://www.r3global.com/blog/2011/04/08/new-black-diamonds/
I HATE how they give God the glory. It feels so contrived. There is nothing to attribute to God but I sure can think of someone else to attribute their “success” to.
Thank God I found your posts. Everyone around town here is buying up the RVL and “losing” 30 pounds a month (they say). I figure it’ll only take em another month to gain all the weight back. I’m in Tulsa which is ENORMOUSLY Christian, and they’re literally eating up this RVL crap. The MV people are really playing to the “Christians” here and taking them for a ride. I haven’t heard any of you express an opinion of the RVL?
Thanks for the comment, Kate.
I did put a couple comments here or at sister-site JuiceScam.com about RVL. It’s a lot like MonaVie juice – similar model. It’s really expensive and not that exceptional compared to what you can elsewhere for much less.
The whole MonaVie model is to sell people on the business, which just happens to require them to buy the product. It’s quite possible that RVL could work for some distributors. I can see there being motivation of needing to lose weight to save my business. It wouldn’t be because of the product though, it would be the new focus on having to be healthy (getting exercise, skipping late night snacks, etc.). While there may be some value to that motivation, there are far cheaper and easier ways to get motivated, such as: http://www.lazymanandmoney.com/stickk-to-your-goals/.
Kate,
Here’s another article around using money as motivation for getting in shape: http://www.lazymanandmoney.com/get-paid-for-getting-in-shape/. It links to a good Time article.
A First Look at Monavie’s Latest Faux-Research
[Editor’s Note: This information was so valuable that I’ve put it on sister-site JuiceScam.com so that it doesn’t get buried in the comments: See: MonaVie’s “Pain Reduction and Improvement in Range of Motion” study
Brilliant work Vogel. That ought to go up on juicescam.com as a standing article.
You have to wonder about how disingenuous the decision makers at MV must be when they decide to conduct these pathetic types of “research”. I’m sure the mandate was to do it cheap and get some vague result they can spin out of proportion. Of course that’s easy when your target audience is science-ignorant distributors and not anyone any actual knowledge. It’s not like anyone is going to bother peer-reviewing this piece of crap.