

MLMs prefer to be called direct sales companies and firmly reject the idea that they are illegal pyramid schemes where only people at the top of the pyramid make money by constantly recruiting new members. People are made to believe they’re their own boss, but there’s a huge amount of demand to recruit and to sell coming from other distributors and the corporate entity above. MLMs are both incredibly hierarchical and incredibly diffuse.
Paparazzi jewelry consultant skin#
While these companies sell an array of products, from skin care to leggings to essential oils, they are united by their business model and the near-religious devotion of many of their sellers (the products are never simply “great,” they are invariably marketed as essential). MLMs have been around for decades, and you’ve probably encountered one even if you didn’t realize it - Amway, Mary Kay, Avon, Herbalife, LuLaRoe, Young Living, Rodan + Fields.

Multilevel marketing, or MLM, is a controversial business model in which salespeople derive profits in two ways: by selling a product or service and, more lucratively, by recruiting other people to sell a product or service. “It’s bound up in, ‘Do you wish to be successful? Do you want to set a good example for your team?’” said Stacie Bosley, an economist at Hamline University who has studied MLMs extensively. Experts say companies like Paparazzi know conferences keep sellers on longer and boost spending on products and services - spending not by customers but by consultants who are desperate to be part of the team and succeed. It’s not God who’s determining your fate, they say it’s the elite consultant above you who would very much like you to attend. New Products EVERY DAY! /MPV7O6yHvj- Paparazzi Accessories by Tammy August 22, 2020Ĭritics note that when you’re part of MLM culture, attending events doesn’t feel like a choice. One nurse who spoke out says it shows the importance of vaccinations. Maybe, they posit, God decided it was their time. The company’s defenders point out that consultants attended of their own volition they knew the risks, and they traveled anyway. (Paparazzi did not respond to a request for comment.) I spoke with more than half a dozen current and former Paparazzi sellers for this story - some firmly in the anti-Paparazzi camp, some its staunch defenders. In Paparazzi-world, the incident has triggered a blowup.

While it’s impossible to know exactly where attendees contracted the disease, many became ill after attending the large, often-unmasked convention. Dozens of the company’s consultants and loved ones were sickened by Covid-19 after the event, sources told me, and at least six people died. The founders declared the event their “best convention yet.” It was also one that ended in tragedy.Ĭelebrate Paparazzi 2021 has been described as a superspreader event. They had come from across the country to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Paparazzi Accessories, a multilevel marketing company, for a four-day extravaganza that would be a mix of product showcases, motivational speeches, networking events, and performances from OneRepublic, Pitbull, and Jim Gaffigan. In early August, thousands of people - mostly women - descended on the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas in the name of $5 jewelry.
