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127 Just Not Buying It fielding resistance to dhs c h a p t e r 6  The DHS mockumentary, Believe, opens with Mark Fuller—an enthusiastic, multilevel marketing distributor with gelled hair, an overly white smile, and a surname out of the DHS history books (Fuller Brush company)—looking into the camera and asking “Are you ready to make some money?!” Making money, Fuller tells his listeners, is as “easy as one, two, three”: 1) selling soap, laxatives, cereals, and a plethora of other products to “your mother, your coworkers, your downline, even yourself”; 2) sponsoring other people through the process of “duplication”; and 3) educating yourself on how to make more money through Believe University, a series of tapes “on sale now.” Suddenly, the camera cuts to a rally packed with thousands of distributors, where a man dressed in a tuxedo tells a spirited, eager audience that they, too, can earn his position on stage through just eight hours of work per week for the next two to five years. A seemingly grim back story looms over this beaming pep rally. Springfield Steel Mill, the only work many employees and generations before them have ever known, closes its doors (all while the CEO gets whisked away in both his limo and his hypocrisy as he offers a tired speech on how we all suffer when any employee in a family-like company does). It is at this point that we meet Adam Pendon, sitting in a diner, lamenting the loss of his truck driving position at the steel mill and wondering how to break the news to his wife, who is pregnant with their first child. Suddenly, a man in a suit approaches Adam, and we again see that unforgettable smile. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” Fuller asks Adam. “Springfield High?” For the next eighty minutes, audiences watch as various Believers journey through this business venture. Dan and Sally, the diehard optimists, rave about all that Believe has done for them. When Sally confesses, “We haven’t made any money yet,” Dan takes the blame and insists that “if you put in the work, it’ll pay off.” Tom and Amy, serial consultants, have moved from one multilevel market (MLM) company to the next, but they say that none is like Believe. (They have also delayed having children at the advice of their Believe mentor.) Howard Flash, a Supreme Believer and success story, tells his tale of an ascent from the trailer park to the upper ranks of the company. (His story is enhanced with a world map, a U.S. flag, and fireworks.) Nevertheless, the film also recognizes that not everyone succeeds at this business , thus carving out a space for the naysayers—and naysayers there are. Dressed in camouflage, Ray, former distributor and anti-Believe activist, sets out to defame Believe through radio talk show stints, his website (www.HateBelieve.com), and an organized protest at the annual convention. Dr. Felix Phillips, an academic, analyzes the fun right out of the industry by drawing parallels to cult-like behavior. Then there is Attorney General Mitch Harris, intent on bringing down Believe during his run for governor. Finally, Charlie, a recovering Believer institutionalized for trying to solicit recruits at his father-in-law’s funeral, serves as a testament to the dangers of the business gone terribly wrong. The film ends, in fact, by reinforcing many of these stereotypes and caricatures with a hint of irony. Adam, the former truck driver and reluctant convert, walks away with the most wealth. Fuller ends up working in a grocery store, and his wife is on a book tour, capitalizing on his misfortune. Flash sits in jail for operating an illegal business scam. It is Tom, however—who had been determined to prove those “naysayers, dream stealers, nonbelievers” wrong as he imagined companysponsored vacations while others wasted their lives at a job—who gets the last word in the film. He talks not from a beach but from his living room. He confesses that Believe wasn’t the opportunity it was cracked up to be. Now, though, he has found the real deal. “Have you heard of Amway?” You don’t need to be familiar with multilevel marketing to recognize the humor in many scenes, such as when one distributor replaces a photograph of himself with a hero of the industry in a frame over his wedding photo. Still, much of the humor of Believe...

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