KZoo Gazette Mentions Amway Guy

Finally! A news article that covers some of DeVos' history with Amway! Thanks to Michigan Liberal and other related blogs, this information has been much easier to find and compile. In fact, the Kalamazoo Gazette goes so far as to refer to Dick DeVos as the "Amway Guy":

To Democrats, DeVos is the ``Amway Guy'' who ran a company that over the years has endured its share of skepticism and barbs in the popular culture. Alticor is Amway's parent company.

Even better, they even go so far as to mention the Michigan Liberal parody of Amway on YouTube.

``What is this thing called Amway?'' goes the jingle in one of many Internet movies Democratic activists have posted on YouTube.com. The film short deploys an old Amway Corp. promotional song as a soundtrack to skewer DeVos.

The article also mentions "Believe," which has been covered extensively by the blog Pohlitics. If you have the chance, check out Zack Pohl's interview with the director of the movie.

Coming to a bigger screen near you next month is Loki Mulholland's film ``Believe,'' a mock documentary that takes aim at what he says is the ``deceptive'' nature of Amway and the multilevel marketing business. It premiers in Lansing on Thursday and opens elsewhere in Michigan in mid-October. The film's marketers are using DeVos' candidacy to boost public interest for the small, independently produced satire. Mulholland, of Salt Lake City, is a former Amway distributor.

The work of Eric Janssen at Quixtar Blog also made its way into the article. Through Janssen's comments, the article actually mentions the "tools" scam that takes place in Amway.

Janssen said the core problem lies with the large, independent business owners who have become wealthy selling motivational tapes that distributors in the downline are told they need to succeed.

There's a cottage industry of Amway criticism on the Web and Janssen said it's because people ``don't like it when they're told (by sponsors) about this great opportunity and then find out they've been lied to.

Nice work, all! For more information on Amway, feel free to take a look at some of the previous entries in my "Amway Exposed" series:

Amway Exposed, Part One: The Profitability of Amway

Amway Exposed, Part Two: The "Tools" Scam

Amway Exposed, Part Three: Dick DeVos Doesn't Believe in Workers' Rights

Amway Exposed, Part Four: Amway and Free Speech

Amway Exposed, Part Five: Amway Money in Politics