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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Forever Living stall at school fair

75 replies

NotOutingSelf · 27/06/2015 22:26

Today I went dutifully to the summer fair of the school where I was a governor, and was somewhat startled to see a Forever Living stall there. AIBU to think the school really shouldn't be promoting something that is basically a pyramid selling scam? I know only too well from personal experience how much hard work goes into organising a school fair, and really don't want to attack the committee members in any way, but WIBU to raise the issue in a low-key way with the head?

OP posts:

Quasicrystals1456 · 27/06/2015 22:28

Can't bear it, but as an mlm company I guess they give a right to be there? Same as Phoenix cards, is or e books, Jamie at Home, pampered chef etc.

FarFromAnyRoad · 27/06/2015 22:31

Well it was hardly a 'Try Crystal Meth Here!' stall was it. I despise FL and all such pyramid schemes but the organisation and products are legal. And really - the school was promoting it? Or they just allowed someone selling it to hire a stall?
I think if you raise the issue with anyone you'll look like a bit of a loon.

Original poster

NotOutingSelf · 27/06/2015 22:35

Why would allowing someone to hire a stall and allowing them to promote the product be mutually exclusive activities?

OP posts:

tobysmum77 · 27/06/2015 22:37

Rather than raising it with the head why not raise it with the PTA?

TRexingInAsda · 27/06/2015 22:39

YABU and a bit silly. They were selling stuff on a stall, not recruiting terrorists.

PtolemysNeedle · 27/06/2015 22:40

The school isn't promoting it, they're selling stands to whoever wants to buy one. What's the head going to do anyway? I don't think it would be right to pass it on to the organisers and make them feel awkward and possibly put them in the difficult position of having to tell a school parent that they can't buy a table next year.

They aren't inviting the local FL rep to do a pitch in assembly, it's just some aloe Vera gel on a table. I'd leave it alone.

tobysmum77 · 27/06/2015 22:46

Why would it be awkward to tell the organisers? Genuinely confused by that, I'm on PTA committee and its a normal type of thing to feed back alongside anything else to consider for next time. We shouldnt be supporting dodgy stuff, and if people have concerns rightly or wrongly they should be discussed.

Jellyrain · 27/06/2015 22:47

If it was Avon would it bother you as much?
I do love a FL lip balm- honestly best lip balm ever!

Original poster

NotOutingSelf · 27/06/2015 22:48

They aren't inviting the local FL rep to do a pitch in assembly

But what stops them doing pitches to anyone who comes to the stall?

OP posts:

SilverBirchWithout · 27/06/2015 22:51

Funnily enough I had a similar experience this week. I work for an organisation that is well known for promoting both its main cause and encouraging others to adopt ethical values. There was a Forever Living stand selling its snake oil in our main foyer this week.

I was going to make a complaint, but ran out of time and then worried that a might look like an obssesive loon. I did a bit of googling on them, as well as being a legal version of a pyramid scheme, the claims around some of their products are frankly based on bad science and there has been accusations of exploitative practises involving the growers in their supply chain.

I'd be interested in whether the OP and my own views are seen by others as a bit precious.

Jellyrain · 27/06/2015 22:54

It was probably one of the school mums promoting her business- people only but it/ sign up if they want to.
It's not like you had to sign up to a fl trial to enter the school raffle so I'd leave it, if people weren't interested they would just walk past.

CoogerAndDark · 27/06/2015 22:55

As long as they paid the going rate for a stall there's not a lot you can do. As a Governor you could raise it in a general way via the appropriate committee. Pyramid sales schemes not being something the school would support etc.

Runningupthathill82 · 27/06/2015 22:57

Someone on my FB feed today - a Forever Living bot - posted a link about Aloe Vera "killing 50 per cent of all cervical cancer cells."

It's that sort of shite that's dangerous, and I'd be worried about them peddling that bollocks at a school fair.

Would be tempted to raise it OP. The head probably doesn't know its anything other than a healthy living stall.

FarFromAnyRoad · 27/06/2015 22:58

I agree with everything you've said Silver but I still wouldn't go complaining. For a start doing that isn't going to make FL go away and besides that I'd like to think adults are quite wise enough to spend their hard earned money any way they wish - dubious though it may be. It's expensive shite anyway so I imagine that would put most right thinking people off.

FarFromAnyRoad · 27/06/2015 22:58

Did you challenge that FB post Running?

Sockmatcher · 27/06/2015 23:00

Can't stand any of the network marketing stores!

LumpySpacedPrincess · 27/06/2015 23:01

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Original poster

NotOutingSelf · 27/06/2015 23:01

The problem is that it's a scheme which works essentially by sucking other people in: they then find themselves stuck with overpriced products which they've somehow got to offload onto other gullible people and try to recruit others, and so it goes on in order to keep the main company's profits up. People who sell it seem to get become obsessive about it, presumably because of the pressure to keep sales high. Sellers use extremely heavy pressure sales techniques, including making ludicrous claims about the products' benefits. On another thread on here, someone posted how an FL seller was claiming that the product could treat lupus. A friend of mine was furious to discover another claiming that it would cure autism. It's a scam, it gets people into debt, and making medical claims like that is bloody dangerous.

OP posts:

Original poster

NotOutingSelf · 27/06/2015 23:02

Yes, Lumpy, it reeeeeeely did.

OP posts:

Runningupthathill82 · 27/06/2015 23:03

Far - I didn't. I know I should've.
But I have enough experience with such posts to know that, if I did respond, I'd be called a "hater" and subjected to a barrage of posts about how I'm just jealous my garden isn't my office. Along with hashtags such as #bossbitch and the like.
Forever Living is v weird indeed.

TattyDevine · 27/06/2015 23:04

I despise the FL crew, I really do, and have been pretty vocal in my distaste of them in other FL threads.

BUT - they are legit enough, certainly if they are not making false claims (and i find this tends to happen more on social media not on their marketing leaflet shite)

She would have paid them for the stall, and people who don't want to visit the stall can give it a wide berth.

I think FL people should have the freedom to market their shite that I have absolutely no interest in in whatever way they wish.

If it was an Ann Summers stall and there were dildos and vibrators out on the table, that would be a step too far, but the school fete forever living thing isn't in my opinion.

Much as a detest the shite.

A stall in an Oncology clinic might be a step too far though - its sort of about the context and the context of a school fete doesn't do it for me, in my opinion.

cozietoesie · 27/06/2015 23:07

I think that it could be argued that there are some people at a school fair who are more vulnerable to an MLM pitch than they might be in a different setting.

This board has many many posts about people who are experiencing 'school gate' issues, particularly because of their children's friendships or frailties. If, for example, your children had not been drawn in to friendship groups at the school and you were approached by a 'queen bee' to join FL, how much more difficult might it be to refuse?

It makes me uneasy even though I know that an MLM is technically different to pyramid selling and therefore legal. (I'm hard pushed at times to see what the basic difference is other than the selling of an actual product by some people at some times - but that's just me.)

honeyroar · 27/06/2015 23:09

They drive me mad with their Facebook pics too. One posted on a local selling site for people to join them on a 9 day detox, with a before and after shot of someone who had lost, by the looks of it, at leat four stones. I just wanted to post "yeah right, as if anyone lost 4stone on a 9 day detox, you liar!!".

But regarding the stall, I don't think it's that much of a complainable issue really.

SilverBirchWithout · 27/06/2015 23:12

It feels a bit like a cult to me, people who have become involved seem a little brainwashed.

muzzybee · 27/06/2015 23:13

Is there anything worse about Forever living than say Pampered Chef? I have not sold either myself but have been to those type of parties. I have found one of the Aloe moisturisers very good and not that expensive. Surely the person having the stall was selling the products not trying to sign up others to sell?

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