Social Selling company Stella & Dot loses partnership after outcry on social media

Multi-level marketing company Stella & Dot lost a big promotional opportunity last week after a public outcry led by us – Timeless Vie.

 

 

At Timeless Vie we regularly see MLMs hoodwink legitimate businesses and charities into giving them additional promotion and partnerships.  Earlier this year Great Run UK backed away from it’s partnership with Herbalife after a similar outcry lead by Stephen Morrison and with help from us.  Partnerships like this infuriate us because they give MLM companies an aura of respectability we don’t believe they deserve.  We take the stance that multi-level marketing (also called network marketing, social selling, relationship selling) – is an unethical business model that leads to participants, mostly women, losing money, time and resources.

 

 

Just last week Bloom & Wild, a hugely popular internet flower delivery service announced that they’d partnered with Stella & Dot to do a series of events in the UK.  Bloom & Wild has been featured on Facebook groups like Mrs Gloss & the Goss (100,000 members) and The Motherload (35,000+) so had access to a large audience of women.  They had built a great reputation within this market – a market we believe Stella & Dot would be keen to enter.

 

 

At these events, Stella & Dot would release details of their new jewellery line and, we were concerned, perhaps recruit more women into their MLM.   Did Bloom & Wild know that Stella & Dot was an MLM?  It seems unlikely.  S & D positions itself as a ‘social selling’ company even though there is no discernable difference between it’s business model & that of other MLMs.

 

 

One of our supporters tipped us off to the Bloom & Wild/S&D partnership.  We knew we had to warn our readers so we shared the info to our FB page.     We didn’t stop there, however – we then let our friends and MLM-Free Network members know – The Motherload, Mrs Gloss & the Goss & The Talented Ladies Club.  With their help, the news spread quickly via Facebook, Twitter & Mumsnet. Women were contacting Bloom & Wild to complain and threatening to cancel their subscriptions.

 

 

Bloom & Wild did a great job responding to our concerns. They initially said they’d look into it and not long after, pulled the event! Take that S&D.  We were thrilled at their quick response.

 

 

Timeless Vie works tirelessly to stop the exploitation of (mostly) women by MLM companies. Stopping S&D from getting free publicity and probably more recruits is a big win for us and by extension, for women.

 

 

If you’re interested in learning more about MLMs and the damage they do, please share this post and check out our site and sign our petition.

If you would like your business or organization added to our MLM-Free Network, please contact us at timelessvie@gmail.com.

Thanks again to all those who participated in this campaign.

 

 

 

 

 

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