Herbalife affiliate caught out using fake testimonials
If you were going to fudge some online testimonials for a global multi-billion dollar MLM empire, you’d think some random names and carefully scripted marketing copy would suffice.
Not for Herbalife affiliate though. When it came to crafting testimonials for his Herbashop marketing website, this Herbalife affiliate in Norway adtoped a “go hard or go home” approach.
What you’re looking at there is the HerbaShop website of Gro Harlem Brundtland. Yada-yada-yada, Brundtland thinks Herbalife is great and wants you to purchase products from her.
Welcome to Gro Harlem Brundtland’s Herbashop.
On the following pages you will be introduced to Herbalife products. For more than 30 years Herbalife has been at the forefront of nutritional and weight management science.
Herbalife is one of the largest companies in network marketing. The goal is to change people’s lives through weight management products, nutritional supplements, and vitality.
“After only three months I had controlled my weight down and changed pant size from 42 to 36”.
Quite the scoop for Herbashop and Herbalife, seeing as Brundtland is a former PrimeMinister of Norway and Director General of the World Health Organization.
Gro Harlem Brundtland is a former Prime Minister of Norway, a current Special Envoy with the United Nations, and the Deputy Chair of The Elders.
Brundtland, MD has served as a physician, a Social Democratic politician and a diplomat, and is now an international leader in sustainable development and public health.
She served three terms as Norway’s Prime Minister: in 1981, in 1986–89, and in 1990–96.
She served as Vice-President of Socialist International.
She served as the Director General of the UN World Health Organization and is now a Special Envoy on Climate Change for the United Nations Secretary-General,Ban Ki-moon.
In 2008 she also became the recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture. (Wikipedia)
Imagine trying to flog Herbalife to someone not entirely convinced about the health benefits associated with the product range.
Oh I dunno, I’m still not really sure this stuff is good for me…
Yo check it, we got the ex-Director General of the WHO on board. That the’s World Health Organization bitches. Health is right there in the title, fo’reals.
Oh well in that case… if Gro Harlem Bundtland thinks Herbalife’s the shit, here’s my credit card!
If you manage to snag someone from the WHO, milk that connection for all it’s worth.
One small problem though… Gro Harlem Bundtland claims she’s “never heard of Herbalife”.
Ruhroh…
The Norwegian publication Kapital were first to break the story last month:
After learning of Brundtland’s Herabshop endorsement, they contacted Brundtland’s press-officer, Jon Morland of the firm Morland & Johnson, only to be told
Gro Harlem Brundtland has never heard of the Herbalife network and consequently has not signed up for her own website or as member of the company.
Gro reacted with surprise and indignation over the abuse of her name.
Shortly after the fraudulent testimonial was discovered, Herbashop pulled it from their site.
Brundtland herself hasn’t ruled out taking further action against Herbalife for the transgression, but at the time of publication no specifics were being discussed:
Brundtland would not comment on how she will address the abuse of her name being portrayed on a Herbalife website credited as her own.
Herbashop itself (herbashop.no) isn’t an official Herbalife corporate website, but rather is run by Norewegian affiliate Dan Ove Tuven (right).
The footer of the Herbashop website states (auto-translated):
This site is produced for Norway and the Norwegian market. Results and stories on this page does not guarantee that others achieve the same result.
They testify only about the results that have been experienced by some of our customers have been willing to follow our guidelines and monitoring system.
A person’s success will depend on his / her their ability to use the products properly in combination with a calorie controlled eating plan.
Adequate intake of water and regular exercise is also recommended, unless it is laid down restrictions on this from a doctor.
It is recommended to follow the instructions on each product and follow the advice that is being done there. To order products from distributors linked to this website must be 18 years of age, according to Norwegian law.
All products have money back guarantee of 30 days. This warranty does not affect your other rights.
This site belongs to and is run by No1 Training System.
No elements of the page may be reproduced without written permission from No1 Training System v / Dan Ove Tuven.
“Access codes” are required to see anything further on the site, indicating other Herbalife affiliates (Tuven’s downline) use the site for marketing purposes.
Kapital contacted Herbalife’s Communications Director Alex Lacey for an explanation. Lacey was willing to be interviewed, but said he had
no explanation for why Gro Harlem Brundtland was registered with her own website at Herbashop, despite the fact that she has never been a member of the network.
“Herbashop is members’ own website, so I can not comment on that part. But this I must investigate.
If what is claimed on the website is not the case, we need to change this.”
Whether or not Herbalife have taken any action against Dan Ove Tuven for the fake Brundtland testimonial is unclear.
Meanwhile Gro Harlem Bundtland isn’t the only public figure whose name was used to market Herbalife, with the publication Dagbladet listing several other Norwegian celebrities who are also tied to Herbalife endorsements:
Our former Prime Minister is not the only famous face to have been abused by Herbalife.
Benedicte Adrian, Marian Aas Hansen, Inger Lise Rypdal, Rune Rudberg, Trine Haltvik, Trune Grung and Trude Drevland have also become entangled in the slim network.
Is it really that difficult to find actual testimonials from Herbalife consumers to use on your marketing website?
Come on, Oz, is that the best picture you can find? 🙂
Very reminiscent of Ray Liotta vs. Nerium case. VERY much so.
WHOIS for Herbashop.no:
AKTIV LIVSSTILSENTER Per Christian Hernes Solberg
Created: 2010-10-01
Last updated: 2011-08-24
WHOIS for No1trainingsystem.com:
Organization: Dan Ove Tuven
Created on 2000-06-06
– Expires on 2015-06-06
– Updated on 2014-06-07
Dan Ove Tuven may be the upline sponsor for Per Christian Hernes Solberg.
Define “best”….
Good enough for Twitter, good enough for me!
@M_Norway
Definitely some sort of business relationship there. I relied on the footer over the domain registration.
It seems that the marketing genius Dan Ove Tuven is not putting all his eggs in one basket: 884632.kyani.net
Just got word that Herbalife is clamping down on “unauthorized” resale of Herbalife products. Members are prohibited from selling Herbalife on Internet ANYWHERE except their Herbalife replicated e-store.
They are NOT allowed to use eBay or any online auction to sell their stuff, even at fixed prices. They are NOT allow to liquidate their inventory to a non-member. HLF claims this is to provide a “level playing field”.
IMHO, expect to see an upsurge in returns, and many uplines balking at eating their downline’s inventory in order to maintain their “team” integrity.
Does that mean “nutrition clubs” are out?
Let’s face it, “liquidating inventory” is pretty much all that happens there.
Herbalife: Who’s Consuming All Those Shakes? And Why…
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2480445-herbalife-whos-consuming-all-those-shakes-and-why
Confessions Of Another Herbalife Distributor, More ‘Scumbaggery’ And A James Bond PR Nightmare (1 Of 2)
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2484615-confessions-of-another-herbalife-distributor-more-scumbaggery-and-a-james-bond-pr-nightmare-1-of-2
It’s interesting that a business that’s supposedly about selling products and enabling you to run your own business that limits how it’s employees are able to sell products and run their own businesses. Product that they’re spending hundreds of dollars for, monthly.
That’s considered regular “retail” and is encouraged, in fact. 🙂
I meant like selling 50 cans to someone else so someone else can put it on eBay.
Herbalife has a lot of these “even playing field” directives, like “Nutritional clubs shall NOT display Herbalife logo on the outside” (as not to make their no-club distributors look bad).
The problem here is more IMPLIED than explicit, since you have to extrapolate the following:
a) there’s a SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT of this liquidating / fire sale going on by Herbalife distributors for them to say something about it
b) they are done at a STEEP discount off Herbalife’s “retail price” and hurts sales by people who genuinely tried to sell their stuff
Which then leads to a few more questions like:
c) Who’s doing the liquidating? Are we talking failed distributors, or uplines who had to quietly buy up their failed downline’s inventory to keep up their pretense of a “team”?
d) Does this suggest that there is hidden “inventory loading” going on that forced the liquidations
e) Why aren’t these inventory being returned for refund, as Herbalife kept repeating to every inquiry with “We have 12 month return policy, longest in the industry”?
f) Cockroach theory: what else is going on that we’re not seeing?
yup. reuters reporters have it all wrong about nutrition clubs BUT christine has it right ! this may be because her research firm ‘orion’ has only one client which goes by the name of pershing square owned by ackman.
would a court EVER consider her opinion ? No. where is her data? has she provided any data or simply her own observations from flying across the world on ackmans money?
he does say he spent 50 mil on his ‘research’, how much went to orions account ?
would regulators take christine richards gossip mongering seriously ? lets see. if they consider christine’s opinions they will also consider walter vandaele’s analysis, finding herbalife to be a legitimate company.
considering that vandaele
who is christine richards again ? a one client wonder woman with no data .
The problem here is more IMPLIED than explicit, since you have to extrapolate the following:
a) there’s a SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT of this liquidating / fire sale going on by Herbalife distributors for them to say something about it ==== chang
according to page 28 of herblife’s investor day presentation in jan,2013, from 2007 to 2012 ONLY .1% products were sold on ebay.
if this amounts to ‘significant’ in your view you may continue your argument , or correct yourself.
the whole world was complaining that distributors sell herbalife on ebay at huge discounts and so regular distributors would never succeed . herbalife clarified that only .1% of products are sold on ebay and this cannot be called ‘fierce competition’ . but complainants complained on and on and on .
so now herbalife says distributors CANNOT sell products on ebay . so now the argument becomes about company ‘controls’ and the complainants complain on and on and on .
it’s like pandering to crybabies.
There’s your problem.
Until they stop lying about withholding actual retail figures, I treat any statistics from Herbalife with absolute suspicion.
Quite obviously there was an inherent problem or they wouldn’t have done anything. This last year or so (ever since they stopped the shady lead selling double business their top affiliates were engaged in), Herbalife have only made changes that favor them from a regulatory standpoint.
Herbalife don’t care about people complaining about their hiding of retail figures, so I don’t think peopel complaining about eBay sales is what brought on the latest announcement.
They’re trying to prevent a regulatory shutdown, not pander to affiliates.
there is absolutely nothing wrong in herbalife making any corrections/improvements that will please regulators. if they’re fine with the regulators then they are fine to do business, after all .
besides , the question of distributors being allowed to sell at ebay at huge discounts had nothing to do with legality , but rather concerns about leveling the playing field as much as possible.
if herbalife felt that non disclosure of their pure retail percentage to ackman and oz , could lead to regulatory shut down , i am sure they would have released those figures too .
Right. The liquidation of product bought to qualify for commissions has nothing to do with regulatory compliance. Pull your head out.
Fail.
Documents From Inside The Herbalife Cartel: How The Company Euthanized E-Tailers (Part 2 Of 2)
Summary
Herbalife sells a retail business opportunity.
“In practice” the company is a recruiting cartel.
Online retailers like “Steve and Susan” don’t stand a chance.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2487845-documents-from-inside-the-herbalife-cartel-how-the-company-euthanized-e-tailers-part-2-of-2
there is nothing illegal in wanting to liquidate products brought
(Ozedit: rest of the comment removed. This is classic Anjali “ignore what was written, make up something and then proceed to write essay arguing against what was never said”. Good luck with that, but do it elsewhere please.)
If it’s only a 1% problem why would Herbalife feel the need to crack down on it? Either it’s a big problem that needs to be cracked down and stamped out… or it’s NOT.
According to the data you quoted, it’s not on eBay, so there must be significant amount of stuff dumped elsewhere.
Wow, since when is Ackman (and cohorts) considered “the whole world”?
herbalife’s own actions betrays their explanation (and yours).
I got struck down with a bastard of a fever/cold over the weekend so I’m out of action till tomorrow.
Herbalife are banning affiliate marketing websites come November 15th – http://nypost.com/2014/10/12/herbalife-moves-to-curb-rogue-sites/
If their affiliates were making bullshit claims, I see that as secondary to the pyramid scheme issues (lack of significant retail activity).
Might do a separate writeup exploring it more tomorrow when I feel better.
While the move will definitely help with “compliance”, it actually “proved” that Herbalife is an recruitment scheme, since there’s virtually NOTHING that distinguish the successful distributors from the failed distributors now, other than their number of downlines.
Herbalife already banned “lead gen” a year ago. With individual websites gone and everybody running the same cookie cutter template, the primary difference is going to be the number of “customers”, i.e. “distributors with no intention of making money” that each was able to hoard… often by getting rid of their immediate downlines on some sort of violation, and thus, inheriting their “customers”.
Wonder what will their income disclosure show for 2014.
whats this ?
oz feels herbalife has pyramid issues because of lack of retail.
chang feels regulating member websites will curtail the retail activity of members.
so , do herbalife members do retail or not ?
also , i think the pyramid issue is done and buried, no legal grounds exist for that . where’s ackman these days? he seems to have lost his voice after his onstage crying jag in july ?
That’s not what he said. Read it again.
Nothing significant. Not until the compensation plan changes. They’re edging closer to that.
How nice that these new regulations don’t take effect until November 15th, so “members”, (remember, they’re not to be called distributors any longer), have one month left to lie their asses off with bogus health claims for herbalife products.
I’ll be watching ebay with great interest this coming month. Sadly, the slightly soiled white leather jacket once belonging to Mark Hughes still hasn’t found a buyer yet on ebay even though it’s listed at only $10,000.
On another note, two scoops of herbalife F-1 shake powder, a tablespoon of honey, the juice of one lemon, and a fifth of Jack Daniels blended and sipped slowly has been proven to cure a cold. (If you don’t have shake powder you can leave it out…same with the lemon and honey.)