Facing a massive public relations campaign against it, the nutrition sales company Herbalife has adopted an intriguing strategy in recent months: Donating to local chapters of the Latino rights nonprofit whose national leadership is seeking its demise.
The Herbalife donations have sparked controversy within the charity, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation’s oldest and biggest Latino rights group with 1,000 chapters in the United States and Puerto Rico. LULAC is holding its ritzy week-long annual convention at the Hilton in midtown Manhattan this week, featuring appearances from Mayor Bill de Blasio and Michelle Obama, and boasting some 20,000 attendees.
Dissent has been brewing over the LULAC leadership’s aggressive fight against Herbalife, and questions about whether it fits into the broader mission of the nonprofit, founded in 1929, to fight discrimination against Hispanics. LULAC’s muscular response has been to crack down on Herbalife’s attempts to donate money to LULAC’s cash-starved state chapters.
“Frankly speaking, no, I don’t think that LULAC should be involved in this,” said Elia Mendoza, LULAC’s Texas state director. “We’ve got much bigger things to worry about.”
Herbalife’s donations came as the The New York Times reported in March that William Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, had placed a
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Members Go To Washington D.C. To Help Herbalife
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Global nutrition and skin-care firm Herbalife announced six independent Florida affiliate members will take part in a group pilgrimage to Washington D.C. Their mission is to lobby lawmakers and promote the company’s focus on healthy lifestyles over the past 34 years.
Florida participants will be among 21 Herbalife Members from six states, including California, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina and Virginia.
The Floridians will represent more than 54,480 independent Herbalife Members from across the state. According to a statement from Herbalife, it will be the first time they “bring a clear message to Capitol Hill about the opportunity and integrity behind Herbalife’s products.”
“As I look across my community, I see that a healthy active lifestyle is something we all need to do a better job of embracing,” says Andres Mejia, a Herbalife Member from Miami. “Herbalife provides a roadmap to success so that an individual can achieve their fitness goals one step at a time. The goal of Herbalife is to motivate people to be the best they can be and I am proud to be a part of that.”
Mejia and the group will address four issues with lawmakers:
Herbalife is a company built on excellent products. Herbalife has been making nutritional products for nearly 35
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Herbalife Stock May Rise Over Next Few Days
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Bidness Etc predicts a rise in Herbalife stocks in their article posted today:
Herbalife Ltd. (HLF) is up about over 33.5% since our last Bullish update on the stock in March. The stock is still down about 15.2% year-to-date (YTD) due to persistent concerns regarding its business model and related investigations; however, it has been on an upswing since April as a result of the company’s strong financial performance.
Herbalife’s trust-building initiatives – such as providing a Gold Standard Guarantee and posting testimonials from members and customers on iamherbalife.com – have also helped it make its business model more transparent, thereby boosting investors’ confidence in the company.
Herbalife is already working on reducing its dependence on its multilevel marketing model – the main point of contention with its critics – with new campaigns. It launched “CR7 Driven to Perfection” with Cristiano Ronaldo last month. As part of the campaign, Ronaldo fans from around the world created and posted photos or videos on their Facebook profiles to show how they individually strive for perfection. Ronaldo chose his favorite video from among the submissions and shared it on his official Facebook page.
These new campaigns are expected to engage more members and customers from around the world, reinforce investor confidence, and
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The Bill Ackman Contradiction
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Over the last year I’ve been reporting on the battle between hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman and Herbalife. Bill Ackman has made very little, if any, progress in his attack. Each time he comes at Herbalife with something that looks potentially disastrous, Herbalife returns with further proof that Bill Ackman is wrong. This has no longer become a matter of whether Herbalife is selling good products (the question has never come up once, strangely) or whether they have a good pay plan, or even what their training programs are like.
The main issue, for Bill Ackman, has always been that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme, focusing on only recruiting individuals to make money. The hypocrisy seems to alude individuals paying attention to the ongoing and unforgiving battle. Bill Ackman’s only products offered by his own company is based on one sole result; money. His sole job is to take money and turn it into more money. He’s the CEO of Pershing Square Capital, a company that’s only product is money. Sure, he considers himself an ‘activist investor’ but that alone can seem like an oxymoron to many, especially those who could never afford the Harvard education he received and millions he himself invested to
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Bill Ackman Now Attacking Top Network Marketer, Anthony Powell
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
The promotional attack machine used to bring Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) to its knees is now targeting Anthony Powell, one of the nutritional supplement company’s top distributors.
The Pershing Square Capital operated website has, under the subsection “perpetrators,” a profile of Anthony Powell, an aggressive entrepreneur highly successful at closing deals to build an Herbalife distribution network of over 16,000 distributors under his domain. Powell used this aggressiveness to become one of Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF)’s top distributors, in some years earning nearly half a million per year. The problem is, on Ackman’s Herbalife attack website Powell is accused of making get rich quick promises using a pyramid scheme to build his fortune.
In 2002, NWTW, Herbalife, Powell, and other senior Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) distributors were sued in a class action in federal district court in Los Angeles. Plaintiff alleged that Herbalife and NWTW constituted a pyramid scheme and that the defendants were committing fraud and securities fraud by making deceptive earnings projections and omitting and misrepresenting the risks inherent in the business.
Plaintiff further alleged that “Powell, along with other of the defendants, conceived, authorized the use of and operated the Lead Generation System known as ‘The Newest Way to Wealth.’”I Herbalife settled the case for $6 million in 2004.
“Dream
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Herbalife Partners With Competitor Group, Inc.
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Herbalife HLF , a leading global nutrition company, today announced that it is partnering with Competitor Group, Inc. (CGI) to sponsor the Events DC Nation’s Triathlon, one of the premier olympic distance triathlons in the United States. The sponsorship reflects the Herbalife commitment to help people around the world lead a healthy, active life.
Herbalife will be the title sponsor of the “Herbalife Congressional Challenge” and the “Herbalife Recovery Zone.” The Herbalife Recovery Zone will feature a selection of Herbalife24™ sports nutrition products, which are designed to help athletes train, compete, recover and perform at the highest level, including Herbalife24™ Rebuild Endurance recovery shake and H3O® Fitness Drink. Herbalife will also provide athletes with nutrition tips and best practices for pre-, during, and post-event to assist participants in training for this and future events.
“Herbalife is very excited to be partnering with CGI on such a landmark event,” said Rob Levy, executive vice president, worldwide sales and marketing, Herbalife. “The endurance athlete community is one we have a longstanding respect for and relationship with, both through the events we are involved with around the world and the successful athletes who benefit from Herbalife® sports nutrition products. We look forward to welcoming all participants
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Herbalife Responds To LULAC In Lengthy Letter
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) in it’s letter, responds to the concerns raised by LULAC leader Brent Wilkes .
June 18, 2014
Brent A. Wilkes
National Executive Director LULAC
1133 19th Street, NW, Ste. 1000 Washington, DC 20036
Dear Mr. Wilkes,
I write to address your May 31, 2014 letter to LULAC’s membership regarding Herbalife.
We at Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) are proud of our presence in the Latino community and the role we play in helping people achieve healthier lifestyles through education and the use of our healthy and nutritious products. We also are proud of the business opportunity Herbalife provides to those who choose to earn part-time or full-time income. Indeed, our strong support in the Latino community is directly related to the widespread popularity of our products and the business opportunity we make available to those who choose to pursue it.
Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) executives and representatives have met with you on three separate occasions. We have explained to you our industry-leading policies and procedures designed to protect Herbalife Members and consumers, and have responded to the issues you have raised during those meetings and elsewhere. Yet, in your letter you continue to state as “evidence” what are in fact misconceptions and unfounded, inaccurate allegations.
Because Herbalife strongly supports