NOTICE: FOR LEGAL REASONS, I’M NOT SAYING THAT THESE ARE SCAM COMPANIES. THEY ARE LEGITIMATE COMPANIES, BUT I PERSONALLY DON’T AGREE WITH THEIR VALUES (FROM MY EXPERIENCE), THAT, IN MY EYES, PROMOTES MISLEADING POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS!
I recently reached out to a brand to join their affiliate program (in a planning stage for a couple of new reviews), and I got a response back that I wasn’t quite expecting, and to be honest, it confirmed just how many companies out there are relying on marketing BS to scam us all!
The response I got was basically We are not entertaining the idea of working with you, because we only work with people who push our products to their followers for sales. We don’t care if our ambassadors haven’t tried the product, that’s not the point of the affiliate program.
Now… I’m not against the idea of companies chosing who they do and don’t want to work with, that’s completely their right and I wouldn’t stand in their way, but the REASON for them not wanting to work with me was because I was actually going to try their product out and be honest about it… Surely it’s not just me that thinks that is a red flag?
And for complete transparency, when I applied for the affiliate program I was upfront with them about what my site does and that we have helped tens of thousands of people to stop getting scammed by marketing BS. I didn’t ask for any freebies and was clear that I’m just going to buy their products and try them out.
In this case, I actually reachout out to the company after they made the decision to not work with me, thinking that it might have just been a misunderstanding, so I just clarified again what the site does and that I was confused by their reason to not work with me, because I hadn’t even tried or written anything about the product yet… Well that email was ignored completely, so I must not have been a miscommunication… They just don’t want the public knowing about how their product performs… I don’t know if that is because they use marketing BS, or if it is just that they are not confident in their products, but… It’s certainly a strange one to me!
Anyway… As a result of that situation… I thought it would actually be a fun idea to see if other companies feel the same way! So I applied for A LOAD of affiliate programs (even if I don’t intend of being in that market or doing the reviews), but to see what the reaction is when I tell them about the website and what I do. The results so far have been hilarious and really highlights how much BS is out there! This page is going to be dedicated to the people who reject me on the basis that I’m not willing to blindly push their products out to my followers without trying the product, or don’t want to work with people who specifically tell people about how their product performs (yes… it’s wild that that was one of the reasons…)
The intention of this page isn’t to get a cheap shot in with people who have rejected the site though folks, there are a load of companies that have legitimate reasons to reject people from their programs, like if they are just focusing on social media, they have limited spaces, only want fitness influencers, etc, etc. I have no problem at all with that. It’s just to highlight the places that, in essence just want to pay influencers to pretend that their products are good, so that it gives their brand a false look of being trustworthy. That is the kind of BS that I think should be called out!
Now, with that out of the way, here is the list of companies so far that fall into this category!
Fussy
Fussy is the company that really gave me the idea of starting this page (as you will have read above). I came across the idea of reviewing some mens deodrants because I was using the cheap stuff from B&M and it just didn’t work (but we just put up with it, not knowing if there is anything better!). So, when I was listing out all of the deodrant brands that were out there, Fussy came up, and they had an affiliate program, that gave you a small % if you were to refer people to them. If I’m doing a review page on it, then I would be silly not to sign up, right?
Well… They declined me because I wasn’t already complimenting them on my site, despite them KNOWING that I hadn’t tried their product (It requires you to write them a bit about you when you sign up, so they were 100% aware of the situation).
I followed up with them via email, just to clear up any understandings and that the reason that i’m not actively promoting them (which I wouldn’t do unless they were good) is that I haven’t even tried them yet! They have ignored my emails, but I’ve bought their product anyway, because it sounds like they could be promoting a shit product (I could be wrong though!). Their review will be done on the deodorant page here, when I’ve gotten around to trying it.
MyProtein
I was actually quite surprised with this one. I gave MyProtein quite a good write-up because some of their products are quite good. There were a couple of them that weren’t to my liking, mind you. But because I was giving readers alternatives to the ones that I didn’t like, it seems like that didn’t sit well with the people who were reviewing the site!
They ended up rejecting the site because we weren’t fully complementing them on all aspects, which is a bit sus… Surely being honest is not only more important for your brand, but also for buyer confidence?
To be honest, though, I’ve moved away from all the protein side of things anyway, so it’s not a biggie, but now every time I see someone promoting MyProtein, it makes me think that they are just talking BS!
Wild Deodorant
Another company that doesn’t work with people/sites that actually test their products and give their opinion. To be fair, I likely wouldn’t have reviewed this type of product as it’s a women’s deodorant, but their reason for rejection was that they don’t work with these kind of pages.
Holy Energy
Okay, so this one was just out of curiosity as I had already said in the past that I thought the product was so bad that I wouldn’t even join their affiliate program, but I couldn’t help myself (as part of putting this page together of course). They did, as expected, reject my application because I wasn’t complimentary to them lol.
I have seen a lot of ‘influencers’ that I have watched their videos before and when I see them promoting Holy, I just think they have sold out! I completely get that people’s taste buds are different, but I tried loads of flavours and couldn’t find one that wasn’t disgusting… Leads me to think that they are just getting a nice little bung of cash for participating in the marketing BS machine!
