IBOAI Blog

Rumor About Olympic Advertising Program Stopping

There is a rumor that the advertising for all our Olympic athletes – Team Nutrilite – is stopping because the athletes don't want to be associated with the name Amway. Not true. Actually, because of Olympic guidelines, there will be a temporary “blackout” of advertising and marketing materials for all athletes competing in the Olympic Games who represent companies or products not officially sponsoring the Olympics. It isn’t just Team Nutrilite and it has nothing to do with the Amway name. The Team Nutrilite advertising and promotion program will resume as soon as the 2008 Olympic Games finish.

Quixtar/ Amway Global provides this explanation:

Advertising Blackout for Olympic Athlete Endorsers
In support of our global Nutrilite business, endorsement agreements have been arranged with several athletes who will be participating in the Olympic Games in Beijing. Due to guidelines established by the governing body of the Olympic Games, advertising and marketing materials featuring these athletes cannot be distributed or broadcast while the games are in progress August 8-24. Doing so could potentially result in the disqualification of these Team Nutrilite athletes from competition.

We do not wish to hinder the success of Team Nutrilite, so we will honor this Olympic blackout period and seek the cooperation of our Independent Business Owners to do the same. In fact, to ensure we are honoring this requirement, our blackout period will begin July 28 and continue through the end of the Olympic Games.  This requirement is the only reason for the short-term discontinuation of any programs featuring these athletes.

Also see our article on the IBOAI website, "Team Nutrilite Advertising and Marketing Materials to Temporarily Undergo Olympic Blackout."

April Fool's Joke About Jim Dornan

There's an April Fool's Joke -- that isn't, at first, obviously a joke -- at another website saying that IBOAI Board member Jim Dornan is now selling Mona Vie.  Since we know some folks won't read far enough on that website to find out it's a joke, we wanted to be absolutely clear that the statement isn't true.

Rumor re IBO Renewals Without Permission

Frequent blogger Utah shared a rumor apparently appearing on some blogs to the effect that some IBO's businesses were being renewed without their permission.

Like much of what is currently circulating on certain blogs, this is more fiction than fact. The IBOAI Board (which at the time included some of those now affiliated with TEAM), and the Corporation partnered several years ago to make sure that an IBOs' business was protected against all possible negative actions (accidental or planned). Automatically renewing all Silver Producers and above was the jointly agreed upon solution.

ADDITIONALLY, the term "Silver" is clearly being misunderstood when the real issue is with Silver PRODUCERS. The auto-renew agreement applied only to Silver Producers and above.

Anyone can be a silver in a LOS with a 7500 Silver at the bottom. Someone with 2500 PV over a 7500 Silver Producer or doing 7500 by themselves is a Silver Producer. If Mary has 10 PV and sponsors Mel who has 1000 PV and Mel sponsors Elena who has 2500 PV and Elena sponsors you and you have 7500 PV, all four of you are Silvers BUT only you and Elena are Silver Producers.

If ANYONE was auto-renewed in error, the Corporation has told us they will fix it and let them be on their way. We suggest that anyone with concerns along these lines contact Karen O'Neill in Quixtar Business Conduct & Rules. The IBOAI will assist if necessary.

Rumors About the Morrison vs. Amway Corp. Decision

Rumors about the February 6, 2007 decision on the Morrison case have been addressed under Legal Matters.

Rumor Re Confidential Competitive Analysis

There's a rumor out there that in April of 2000, the IBOAI conducted a “Confidential Competitive Analysis” of Quixtar products.   FALSE.

There is no record of any such analysis in minutes of Board and Committee meetings.  There were, at a couple of different points in time, INFORMAL comparisons of Quixtar products with other commercial products made by a handful of IBO leaders and members of their downline.  One such comparison helped Board representatives, on behalf of all IBOS, negotiate favorable pricing for energy bars with Quixtar.

Rumor re IBOCS

Utah asked, "Since the IBOCS parent company went chapter 11, is Q/A is going to dump them just like Amvox? I like IBOCS. What is going on?"

Moderator: Thanks for your question. We're glad to hear that you like IBOCS. You are correct that the parent company, InPhonic, is in the midst of a restructuring. But, those developments are unrelated to their work with IBOCS. Quixtar and InPhonic have enjoyed a great business relationship over the years and we expect that to continue. Similarly, Quixtar has had discussions with the executive team at InPhonic and they've assured Quixtar that IBOCS is an important part of their product plans going forward.

Overall, Quixtar expects that InPhonic will emerge from its reorganization a stronger company. From Quixtar's perspective, it's business-as-usual with respect to InPhonic and IBOCS.

We have asked Quixtar to monitor the situation and keep us informed.

False Rumor About Larry Winters

Online rumors that Double Diamond Larry Winters is discontinuing his Quixtar business are completely false.  It's the kind of outlandish thing bloggers write when they have nothing substantive to say.

Rumor Control

There are some pretty strange urban legends about various aspects of our business -- we call them "IBO Fairy Tales" -- that originate from misunderstanding or even (gasp) deliberately disseminated misinformation.

We all can do a lot of harm by being part of that daisy chain, but if you hear something that causes you concern, who ya gonna call?  Well, the mythbusters here at IBOAI, of course.  Don't pass that seemingly credible piece of information on to others first -- post it here and let us confirm or debunk it for you, using verifiable sources.

Because we're going to be scrupulous in our fact-checking about rumors, posting your query with our response may take a bit longer than usual -- please bear with us.

Finally, if there's a rumor you prefer to check out without posting it on this blog, write to pr@iboai.com, attn: Rumor Control.  We'll get back to you privately.