1. Clearly WakeUpNow was a pyramid scheme. Now, whether it was illegal or not
doesn’t matter because one thing is clear: nearly no one was making money,
despite overwhelming assurance from WakeUpNow that they would. In my
research I seek the answers to these questions: Why did the scam work? Do
rhetorical concepts help explain its power? Can understanding it rhetorically
help us intervene to prevent people from getting scammed?
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
METHODS
For this project, I analyzed audio, video, and social media files to determine
consistent themes in their communication. I then selected 10 examples and
categorized them into 1) recruitment, 2) training, 3) motivation, and 4) lifestyle to
then use religious rhetorical theory to demonstrate how the members of the
company’s rhetoric matched up with religious paradigms.
Graphic showing how WakeUpNow members promote their compensation
plan from a Youtube video titled “Wake Up Now (WUN) Compensation
Plan Break-Down.”2
Graphics/Visual Aids
BACKGROUND
RESULTS
● This study shows that WakeUpNow purposefully used prophetic and Puritan rhetorics
to convert people into their quasi-religious economic cult.
● Members of the company shared their economic conversion narratives, which nearly
exactly matched the characteristics of American Puritan conversion narratives.
(See Chart)
● Members of the company engaged in prophetic rhetoric to translate visions of a
monetarily secure future.
● Members of the company then trained other members how to effectively use a lay
version of “effective” rhetorical techniques to improve their ability to convert others.
CONCLUSION
With this work, I propose how consumers can protect themselves from the
dangerous methods used by predatory economic cults, like WakeUpNow.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would personally like to thank Professors Patricia Roberts-Miller, Jacqueline
Henkel, and Linda Ferreira-Buckley for their support, guidance, and patience
for the duration of this project. This work would not be possible without the
support of the Appleman Undergraduate Research Fund.
REFERENCES
1. Henkel, Jacqueline M. "Represented Authenticity: Native Voices in Seventeenth-
Century Conversion Narratives." The New England Quarterly 87, no. 1 (March
2014): 5-45. Accessed April 7, 2016. doi:10.1162/tneq_a_00343.
2. Wake Up Now (WUN) Compensation Plan Break-Down. Directed by Hub Hive.
2013. Youtube.
THE COST OF Economic Cults and the Rhetoric of Religion
Danielle Brown, Rhetoric & Writing Honors,
danielle.brown.t@gmail.com
Wake Up Now, a multi-level marketing company operating from 2009-2015,
Utah, was labeled an “economic cult” by MLM researchers. The company’s main
products were online software and discounts on consumer goods and travel costs,
but most of the profits came from the $100 a month membership fee. Most of the
communication coming from the members of the company and the company
itself, however, revolved around making money through a compensation plan
from recruiting more people into the company. According to their income
disclosure statement, however, 96 percent of paying members were making no
money back, while less than one percent at the top of the pyramid were
making six figures a year, despite promises of wealth from recruiters.
TERMS
Multi-level marketing companies (MLM) - work on a tiered structure in which
“members,” or “independent business owners,” receive more benefits and money
by recruiting more people into the company and selling the
products they offer.
Pyramid Schemes - are MLMs where a majority of the profits come from
recruitment and fees to be a part of the company, rather than from selling
actual products.
WAKING UP“Save money, make money, manage money”
—WakeUpNow’s motto
PURITAN CONVERSION
NARRATIVE 1
ECONOMIC CONVERSION
NARRATIVE
Structured chronologically,
reference family and spiritual
upbringing
Salvation seekers undergo an
experience that causes them to
actively pursue salvation
Recite “meaningful counsel from
spiritual advisors”
Structured chronologically,
reference family and financial
upbringing
Members undergo a financial
experience that causes them to
pursue a new way to make money
Recite “meaningful counsel” from
recruiter who brought them into
the company