From The Ground Up

Genre: Educational

Year Published: 1955

Creator: Mytinger and Casselberry Inc

Format: 16mm

Sound: sound

Description: about nutrilite supplements. The roots of multilevel marketing are intertwined with those of the Amway Corporation and its Nutrilite product line. The Nutrilite concept is said to have originated about during the early 1930s in the mind of Carl Rehnborg, an American businessman who lived in China from 1917 to 1927. According to Amway publications, this gave Rehnborg "ample opportunity to observe at close range the effects of inadequate diet." He also "became familiar with the nutritional literature of his day." Concluding that a balanced diet was needed for proper bodily function, he began to envision a dietary supplement which could provide people with important nutrients regardless of their eating habits.Gross sales soared to $500,000 a month, but the promoters also ran afoul of the law. In 1947, the FDA began a 4-year struggle to force Mytinger, Casselberry, Rehnborg, their respective companies, and some 15,000 door-to-door agents to stop making wild claims about their products. Potential customers were being given a booklet, "How to Get Well and Stay Well," which represented Nutrilite as effective against almost every case" of allergies, asthma, mental depression, irregular heartbeat, tonsillitis, and some 20 other common ailments. The booklet, which contained testimonial letters, also implied that cancer, heart trouble, tuberculosis, arthritis and many other serious illnesses would respond to Nutrilite treatment.After Mytinger and Casselberry, Inc., was asked by the government to show cause why a criminal proceeding for misbranding should not be started, the booklet was revised. A "new language" was devised which referred to all diseases as "a state of nonhealth" brought about by a "chemical imbalance." Nutrilite would cure nothing -- the patient merely gets well through its use. Most direct curative claims were removed from the booklet, but illustrative case histories were added. Although continued governmental pressure led to removal of the case histories, the booklet remained grossly misleading.In 1951, the Court issued a permanent injunction forbidding anyone who sold Nutrilite products from referring to any edition of "How to Get Well and Stay Well" and more than 50 other publications that exaggerated the importance of food supplements. The court decree also contains a long list of forbidden and permissible claims about nutrition and Nutrilite products.