Is located in Chaska, MN, United States and is part of the Home Furnishings Stores Industry. Has 70 total employees across all of its locations and generates $24.52 million in sales (USD). There are 4 companies in the My Pillow, Inc. Corporate family. Is a pillow manufacturing company based in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The company was founded in 2004 by Michael J. Lindell, who invented and patented MyPillow, an open-cell, poly-foam pillow design. Most of the company's.
Do you wake up feeling tired in the morning?Are those mornings ruined by phantom headaches, a stiff neck, and 'a tingly feeling' in your fingertips? If so, you may have spent one too many sleepless nights watching MyPillow infomercials.
These ads can be tough to shake, featuring average Joes and Janes lovingly fondling, plumping, and nuzzling their MyPillows as they float listlessly through outer space. The product allegedly 'adjusts to your individual sleep needs regardless of sleeping position,' thanks to a 'patented open-cell, poly-foam design.' MyPillow is the brainchild of gregarious crack addict-turned-entrepreneur Mike Lindell, a self-professed inventor and 'sleep expert.' In six years, Lindell reportedly spent $100 million on those infomercials (per CNBC.) By 2017, My Pillow, Inc. had allegedly sold more than 30 million pillows, making approximately $300 million a year in revenue.
But there's so much more to Lindell's story, like a record-breaking pillow fight, and a battle with the Better Business Bureau, and a bromance with President Donald Trump that runs so deep that Lindell joined him in the nation's response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Switch on the night light and slide on your reading glasses, because you won't get a good night's sleep .. until you discover the dark truth about the MyPillow commercial guy.
The creator of MyPillow was a crack addict
Fact: Crack addicts rarely become multi-millionaire entrepreneurs. 'People say all the time that's one of the biggest miracles ever,' Mike Lindell told CNBC in September 2017, claiming he'd been sober for eight years: 'It can be done, people.'
How bad was his addiction? In March 2008, Lindell's dealer reportedly stuck his neck out for his client, supposedly telling other local drug dealers not to sell any more crack to Lindell until his customer got some much-needed shuteye. 'I was like, 'Wow, drug dealers care!' Lindell told Bloomberg, claiming that the dealers all agreed, refusing to sell Lindell any more rock. As some sort of nod toward tough love, the dealer took a photo of Lindell at his most unkempt, reportedly telling him: 'You're going to need this for your book.'
Lindell was allegedly still abusing drugs when he founded MyPillow in 2005, but said he eventually cleaned up his act on Jan. 16, 2009, when he reportedly quit all substances after one last blowout. 'I had one prayer that night,' he said. 'God, I want to wake up in the morning and never have the desire again.' The next day, he said his craving for cocaine 'was just gone.'
The idea for MyPillow came to Mike Lindell in a dream
Mike Lindell claimed divine inspiration planted the idea for MyPillow in 2004: 'I had a dream — which I believe was right from God — about MyPillow,' he told CBS News. Apparently the logo came first, and Lindell just couldn't shake the thing. 'I got up in the middle of the night,' he told CNBC, and the Eureka moment hit him around 2 in the morning: 'I had 'My Pillow' written everywhere in the kitchen and all over the house,' he said.
In a moment he vividly reenacted in a MyPillow commercial, Lindell claims one of his daughters entered the kitchen that night in search of some water and found her father working feverishly on his new idea. 'I've got this idea for this pillow,' he allegedly told her. 'It's gonna be called MyPillow!' All his daughter apparently said was: 'That's really random,' and turned and headed back downstairs. (Sounds like a well-adjusted child. If we ever walked into the kitchen to find our father scrawling 'MyPillow' all over everything, we would scream.)
It sounds like Lindell has always been somewhat fixated on pillows. In 1977, when he was just 16, he claims he purchased a $70 pillow because he had insomnia. 'Who does that as a teenager?' he asked.
Mike Lindell staged the world's largest pillow fight
It says it right there on the Guinness World Records website: On May 18, 2018, the largest-ever pillow fight rocked Minneapolis, with thousands of participants flooding the Minnesota Vikings' U.S. Bank Stadium, according to CBS Sports. As far as pillow fights go, this was an exceedingly chaste affair. Guinness World Records reports the happening was baked into the 'evangelistic PULSE Movement event,' a Christian concert that reportedly draws about 60,000 individuals a year. The pillowy powwow was spearheaded by Mike Lindell. One-hundred and seventy MyPillow employees reportedly placed complimentary MyPillows on 66,200 stadium seats. (In a tweet, Lindell says it took 170 employees eight hours.)
Video footage captures every flapping pillow. Lindell whoops through a mic, riling the crowd with the help of another overzealous emcee: 'Make some noise!' As security guards scour the pillow fight for signs of devilry, Lindell and his friend continue to shout: 'Swing that pillow, baby, come on!' 'Keep swinging it, everybody! Keep swinging it.. Say JESUS!' Later, Daft Punk's 'One More Time' pumps through the stadium as pillows flop and flap.
The event ends with Lindell ad-libbing a prayer. Down on one knee, with that knee resting on a MyPillow, Lindell openly hopes Jesus 'touched' people in the audience. Addressing his Savior directly, he pleads: 'Lord, make these pillows that people take home.. their Prayer Pillow.. That they will lay on 'em, and never forget this night, and they will pray to you, Lord.' Amen.
That time footage surfaced of Lindell yelling at MyPillow employees
Underneath that effortfully breezy public persona, evidence points to a darker side of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. According to the Star Tribune, a 'faceless' clip of Lindell surreptitiously materialized on YouTube in 2014. The audio allegedly features Lindell succumbing to several bona fide on-the-job meltdowns. One reportedly involves 150,000 botched orders, with Lindell telling a staffer: 'Don't shake your f****ing head.' Additional audio reportedly features Lindell being a general hothead and launching F-bombs left and right. Lindell suspects 'two former employees and relatives' released the YouTube clip.
Lamentably, we couldn't get our hands on any of this audio. Lindell claimed his 'lawyers are getting [the clip] removed from YouTube,' and perhaps they succeeded. Nevertheless, a Tribune gossip reporter got her hands on two clips, after a tipster emailed her with an unambiguously worded message: 'His behavior daily in our office.'Lindell, for his part, assured the Tribune this was the old Lindell.
The Star Tribune seems slightly obsessed with Lindell. In 2013, the publication claimed his ex-wife filed for divorce because he's a 'snooze.' According to Lindell, his second ex-wife, Dallas Yocum, told him, 'I don't love you. I never loved you. You're boring.' At the time, reportedly four of Yocum's relatives had been working for MyPillow. We're not professional detectives, but what are the chances one of those Yocums was involved in the embarrassing YouTube leak?
Mike Lindell thinks MyPillow was an act of God
The academic life didn't sit particularly well with Mike Lindell. According to CNBC, he attended the University of Minnesota in 1979 while working two jobs, but only stayed there for a quarter: 'I felt like I was just wasting my time,' he said.The daily grind wasn't quite his thing, either, considering he was fired from a gig at a grocery store. Lindell didn't get along well with the manager, who said something that may have jiggered a latent entrepreneurial spirit in the man: 'Well, Mike,' he allegedly said, 'If you don't like it here, maybe get your own company someday.'
Indeed, after several failed attempts to do just that, Lindell ultimately found massive success with MyPillow, and he thinks that success was all part of God's master plan: 'The only way that we were able to do that was divine intervention,' he said. Lindell has since returned the favor by co-founding LIGHTBEAMedia, 'a contemporary Christian content provider' that offers cinematic fare such as Heaven, How I Got Here: A Night with the Thief on the Cross. That hour-long drama stars Stephen Baldwin as a thief who dies on a crucifix several feet away from Jesus Christ. Baldwin claims none of his prior performances have 'so personally impacted me.' This presumably includes his turn in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas.
MyPillow was fined $1 million for 'deceptive ads'
The first thing you'll see upon paying a visit to MyPillow's official website is a promise from Mike Lindell: 'I personally guarantee MyPillow will be the most comfortable pillow you'll ever own.' What you'll no longer see, as of October 2016, are claims that the pillow will have a positive influence on your health, ridding you of insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and a number of other sleep disorders. That's to make no mention of migraines, snoring, and fibromyalgia.
According to Truth in Advertising, MyPillow both directly and indirectly claimed their pillows can potentially ease symptoms of acid reflux, menopause, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis. As NBC News reported in November 2016, MyPillow was subsequently fined $1 million for 'deceptive advertising practices' in a lawsuit that claimed the company 'should have known' that its ads 'were untrue or misleading.' Because of another lawsuit, Lindell reportedly agreed to stop calling himself a 'sleep expert,' too.
'We did nothing wrong,' Lindell told NBC News. 'Rather than fight this, I made a business decision to prevent long and costly litigation.' Meanwhile, Truth in Advertising Executive Director Bonnie Patten sounds pretty certain Lindell did plenty wrong: 'MyPillow was deceiving consumers into buying these expensive pillows thinking that it was going to help their health conditions when he [Mike Lindell] had no science to back up these claims.'
This begs the question: How does Mike Lindell sleep at night?
Why the Better Business Bureau gave MyPillow an 'F'
In January 2017, MyPillow's 'A+' rating from the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota dropped to an 'F,' according to The Washington Post. What changed? The Bureau cited several questionable practices, but highlighted the company's seemingly endless 'Buy One, Get One Free' promotion. If a promotion like that never ends, it's just the price of the product, deceptively worded. (This reportedly violates Federal Trade Commission rules.) According to the Daily Beast, MyPillow commercials regularly advertised the pillows for 'half price' at $99.97 for two pillows, even though they tend to retail at $49.99 a pop. This boils down to one cent of savings.
In an interview with USA Today, Barb Grieman, senior vice president of the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota, claims MyPillow was warned about the problem: 'They said that they didn't really understand that that was a problem, but that they couldn't change it at that time. .. They felt that it would be too distressful for their company.' Asked why the offer was still being advertised after the rating drop, Lindell says it was because he'd already pre-paid for his advertising spots and didn't want his so customers to be 'confused.'
Lindell suspects the bureau's decision had more to do with the fact that he supports Donald Trump. 'Really, you're sure it's not about the election?' he crowed in an interview withCBS, adding: 'I firmly believe that the only explanation is political.'
Trump says Mike Lindell makes a 'great' pillow
As the expression goes, Mike Lindell and Donald Trump are as thick as thieves. According to Lindell's website, Trump became interested in Lindell's entrepreneurial spirit, which led to their first meeting in August 2016 at Trump Tower. Eschewing the small talk, they reportedly hunkered down and got right to the subject of religion. Lindell apparently kicked things up a notch by telling Trump he was a 'divine appointment.' He left the meeting convinced that 'Donald Trump is going to be the most amazing president in history.'
Both the president and the first lady are allegedly huge fans of MyPillow. According to Think Progress, a Trump rally in June 2018 quickly devolved into an infomercial of sorts, with Trump rapturously singing MyPillow's praises: '[Lindell] does make a great product, great pillows,' he said. 'I actually use them, believe it or not.'
The president promoted Lindell and MyPillow again during — of all things — a Coronavirus Task Force Briefing in the White House Rose Garden on March 30, 2020. But it's not quite as strange as it sounds. Lindell and other manufacturers shifted their processes to produce much-needed personal protective equipment in the effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, so Trump invited them to inform the nation of their efforts. Lindell did just that, followed by some 'off the cuff' remarks in which he made it clear that he believes Trump's election (like his Lindell's pillow design) was a result of God's 'grace.'
The MyPillow guy's talk-show appearances devolve into advertisements
In August 2017, Mike Lindell appeared on CNBC to explain why he's 'standing by' President Donald Trump: 'He's not a racist. He's an amazing person, and he will persevere and get through and get to his agenda.' The appearance is notable because Lindell's visit becomes something of a subliminal advertisement for MyPillow. As he speaks, digital signage keeps popping up, telegraphing various alleged selling points about the product. The messaging proudly touts MyPillow's 'patented interlocking fill' and the fact that it 'adjusts to individual sleep neeeds [sic].' In the end, the effect is not unlike many of the official MyPillow commercials, which ape the style and setting of contemporary talk shows, with Lindell as the esteemed guest.
Alice more. Interviewing Lindell presents something of a conflict of interest for networks. During a 2017 interview with CBS anchor Esme Murphy, she made the point of saying: 'In the interest of full disclosure, Mr. Lindell is a frequent advertiser on WCCO Television, and has also purchased an hour of airtime tonight after our late local news for the airing of a special that he produced called The Mike Lindell Story: An American Dream.'
Is Mike Lindell really a ladies man?
Mike Lindell, who was once dubbed President Donald Trump's 'new best friend' by the Daily News, isn't just a favorite among conservative TV pundits. He's apparently somewhat of a ladies man — at least if you're reading the tabloids, which seem to be almost obsessed with this bizarre detail about him. Apparently, the infomercial star was a hot ticket at Trump's inauguration, and a headline from City Pages alleges the pillow connoisseur was the 'hot stud ladies man' of the definitely well-attended event. It's so sad to think Mike Pence was glossed over for that title.
In 2017, Page Six unabashedly reported that 'ladies love' the divorced former crack addict. Per the report, 'women flocked to Lindell' at the Empire State Inaugural Kickoff despite the presence of 'big names including Newt Gingrich and Jon Voight.' Apparently, a group of 'attractive blond women' approached the millionaire as he humble-bragged to the tabloid, 'A lot of people recognize me from the MyPillow ads, and they often stop and ask for pictures. It's a blessing.' Clearly, Lindell knows what women want: to stand in the presence of a '70s-style mustache and to get a good night's sleep.
Mike Lindell is a film financier
Mike Lindell doesn't just hawk pricey pillows. The star has jumped into an entirely new field. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lindell is officially a Hollywood financier. In 2018, the pillow mogul financed his second motion picture. But Lindell, who's 'worth an estimated $300 million,' has a strict code when choosing his projects. 'I don't get into things for the money; I get into them if the message is right,' he told THR.
The multimillionaire first embarked on this new path by investing in Church People, a Stephen Baldwin-led Christian comedy. After that, he dumped $1 million into a flick called Unplanned from the makers of the Christian blockbuster hit God's Not Dead, which grossed $61 million in the box office. Per THR's report, Unplanned was secretly filmed because of its controversial stance on Planned Parenthood, and Lindell was responsible for about one sixth of the project's overall funding. He also made a cameo in the film where he helps bulldoze a Planned Parenthood location in favor of a headquarters for the anti-abortion group 40 Days for Life. 'I'm pro-life and I'm happy to do it,' he told THR.
For Lindell's third project, the star intended to finance a film based on his book What are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO. Yes, one day we're probably going to have a MyPillow guy biopic.
Laura Ingraham won't #BoycottMyPillow
If there's one thing about Mike Lindell, it's that he sticks strongly to his convictions. The star was one of the few advertisers who did not pull their ads from Laura Ingraham's show after high school shooting survivor David Hogg called for a boycott of the Fox News host.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the boycott was sparked after Ingraham reportedly taunted the Marjory Stoneman Douglas student on social media over his college rejections. In an interview, Hogg had mentioned that he didn't get into four University of California schools (hey, rejections happen to even the smartest kids). 'David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it,' she tweeted. '(Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA .. totally predictable given acceptance rates).'
Ingraham later apologized, but advertisers like Nestle, Jounson & Johnson, TripAdvisor, Hulu, and Expedia had already pulled out. MyPillow was not among them. 'I did not take my advertising down from [The Ingraham Angle] and [Fox News],' Lindell tweeted. 'Nor do I intend to.' According to the Daily Caller, after Lindell's announcement, Hogg supporters called for a boycott of MyPillow using the hashtag #BoycottMyPillow; however, it would appear that sales remained strong.
Mike Lindell helped post Kyle Rittenhouse's bail
Mike Lindell was back in the news in November 2020 for giving some cash to Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen who became a national headline after fatally shooting two people and injuring one during the protests in Kenosha, Wis. According to CNN, the protests, which took place in August, followed the death of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was killed in a police shooting a couple of days prior.
ABC 7 reported that Rittenhouse, who turned himself into the police, was charged with 'first-degree intentional homicide, attempted homicide, reckless homicide, recklessly endangering safety and illegal possession of a firearm.' He was being held on a $2 million bond because he faced a 'mandatory life sentence' or 'likely decades of time' behind bars, according to Kenosha County Commissioner Loren Keating, who spoke to CNN. Thus, the teen was declared 'flight risk.'
Lindell ended up helping Rittenhouse post the enormous bail sum. In a tweet, the teen's attorney, Lin Wood, claimed the MyPillow CEO and actor Ricky Schroder donated to Rittenhouse's #FightBack campaign, which sends money to the Kyle Rittenhouse Defense fund.
| Private | |
| Industry | Pillows |
|---|---|
| Founded | July 1, 2009[1] |
| Founder | Mike Lindell |
| Headquarters | Chaska, Minnesota, United States |
Number of employees | 1,500 |
My Pillow, Inc. is a pillow manufacturing company based in Chaska, Minnesota, United States.[2] The company was founded in 2009 by Mike Lindell, who invented and patented My Pillow, an open-cell, poly-foam pillow design. From 2004 to 2009, My Pillows were sold through Lindell's Night Moves Minnesota, LLC and have been sold through My Pillow, Inc. since 2009.[3] My Pillow has sold over 41 million pillows, due mostly to TV infomercials.[4][5] The company started with five employees in 2004 and had 1,500 employees as of 2017.[6]
My Pillow, Inc. has been fined, and has settled various lawsuits related to misleading advertising. The company has made scientifically unsupported claims that its pillows could treat and cure disease, including multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy.[7][8][9]
History[edit]
Origin[edit]
My Pillow Company Headquarters Address
My Pillow was founded by Mike Lindell, a resident of the U.S. state of Minnesota.[10][11] To help fund the development of the pillow, Lindell sold four bars he owned in Carver County, Minnesota, and mortgaged his own house.[2][6] At first, Lindell hand-sewed the pillows himself and handled all the sales and distribution with help from his family.[6]
The first My Pillow was sold in 2005 at a kiosk in Eden Prairie Center, a mall in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.[6] For the next six years, the company struggled while selling at mall kiosks, state fairs, and trade shows.[12]
Promotion[edit]
The company's success took off after launching an infomercial in October 2011.[13] The thirty-minute show was shot in one day in front of a live studio audience and cost $500,000 to produce and launch.[14] As of September 2013, the infomercial was still running an average of 200 times per day on local and national networks. Since it first aired, My Pillow has sold more than 30 million pillows and grown from 50 employees to over 1,500.[5][14][15]
In July 2015, Lindell and My Pillow sponsored an attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for the world's largest pillow fight at a St. Paul Saints baseball game. The fight featured 6,261 participants, beating a previous record of 4,201.[16]
In May 2018, Lindell and My Pillow again broke the Guinness World Record for the world's largest pillow fight, this time at the evangelistic PULSE Movement event held at the U.S. Bank Stadium, after Lindell led over 45,000 people in prayer.[17][18][19]
In late March 2018, student activists from the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, including David Hogg, called for a boycott of advertisers on the television show The Ingraham Angle on Fox News Channel, after host Laura Ingraham made disparaging comments about Hogg. Dozens of advertisers subsequently vowed to no longer pay for advertising on The Ingraham Angle, but My Pillow continued to advertise on the show and increased their advertising buy on The Ingraham Angle by 625 percent during the first week in April 2018.[20]
My Pillow purchased more advertising on the Fox News Tucker Carlson Tonight program than any other advertiser, as of June 2020, after many major companies had stopped supporting the show.[21] A data firm estimated that nearly 38 percent of Carlson's 2020 advertising revenue had come from My Pillow at half-year.[22]
Operations[edit]
The company's headquarters, call center and customer service center are located in Chaska, Minnesota.[2] My Pillow manufactures pillows, mattresses, mattress toppers and covers, Giza Cotton sheets, towels and pet beds[23] at its 70,000 square-foot manufacturing plant in Shakopee, producing approximately 25,000 pillows per day.[15][24] Some products are marketed as 'proudly American made'.[25]
Retail[edit]
My Pillow opened its first retail store in Burnsville, Minnesota, in 2012 and, as of 2017, had grown to 17 locations in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska.[26] My Pillow products are also offered on QVC, at major retailers, trade shows, and from the My Pillow website.[13][27]
Covid-19 pandemic production shift[edit]
In March 2020, FOX News reported that founder Mike Lindell had announced that 75% of the company's production was shifting to making cotton face masks to donate to health care workers for use during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that 'Masks will not be available to public to purchase',[28] though the cotton masks later appeared for sale on the My Pillow website.[29]
Design and technology[edit]
My Pillow products are a patented design, involving a mix of different-sized pieces of open-cell poly-foam. Lindell claims to have tested 94 different foams before deciding on the right one.[6] The pieces are chopped to specification by a machine Lindell developed based on a piece of farm equipment. The mix also contains a resin that enables the foam to retain much of its shape when molded to the user's preference. The pillows are non-allergenic, dust mite-resistant, washable, and dryable.[6] In 2013, QVC awarded My Pillow its Q-Star Award for Product Concept of the Year.[30]
Lawsuits and settlement[edit]
In April 2016, a class action lawsuit was proposed for the pillows being falsely advertised, among the complaints being that Lindell is marketed as a 'Sleep Expert,' despite having no board certification or special training in sleep medicine.[8] The Better Business Bureau received 220 complaints regarding the company from 2013–2016.[31]
In August 2016, the New York State Attorney General's office charged that My Pillow failed to collect and remit over $500,000 in sales tax. The company denied any wrongdoing and agreed to pay $1.1 million in settlement.[32]
On November 1, 2016, My Pillow agreed to pay $1 million ($995,000 in civil penalties and $100,000 to California charities benefiting the homeless and victims of domestic violence) to settle a false advertising lawsuit brought in Alameda County Superior Court by Alameda County and eight other California counties.[33] The lawsuit challenged the company's marketing claims, which asserted without proof that its pillows could treat symptoms of fibromyalgia, restless leg syndrome, sleep apnea, cerebral palsy, acid reflux, and other conditions.[33] As part of the settlement, the company was banned 'from making claims in California that its pillows can cure or treat diseases and their symptoms without a human trial to back up the statements.'[33] 'In addition, My Pillow must stop promoting itself as the 'official pillow' of the National Sleep Foundation because it failed to disclose its financial connection with the foundation to consumers.'[32]
In November 2017, the lawsuit, which challenged the appropriateness of the marketing, packaging, and sale of My Pillow products, including health claims about the product, buy one get one promotions, and the use of third party endorsements and logos, was settled.[7]
Ratings and reviews[edit]
In January 2017, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) announced it had revoked the accreditation for My Pillow and had lowered their rating from an A+ to an F[34] based upon numerous consumer complaints. The main issue addressed by the BBB was the constant use of their buy one, get one free offer. The BBB's Code of Advertising requires that offers or discounts must be made for a limited time, or the deal becomes the normal price of the product.[35] It remained an active promotion, as of August 2020.[36]
A 2016 Consumer Reports review of the company's pillows found a mixed reception after at-home testing, finding that 'only one-third of the group said they would buy MyPillow again.'[37]
Philanthropy[edit]
A portion of My Pillow proceeds goes to the Lindell Foundation, a charity that assists addicts, veterans, cancer patients, and other people in need.[24][38] In March 2015, My Pillow donated pillows to the Sandra J. Schulze American Cancer SocietyHope Lodge, which houses patients and their caregivers when traveling for treatment.[39][40] As of 2017, the company was donating a pillow to charities such as homeless shelters and hospitals for each order made in the associated Minnesota community.[41] My Pillow donated 60,000 pillows in 2017 to Hurricane Harvey victims in Texas.[42]
Indeed, after several failed attempts to do just that, Lindell ultimately found massive success with MyPillow, and he thinks that success was all part of God's master plan: 'The only way that we were able to do that was divine intervention,' he said. Lindell has since returned the favor by co-founding LIGHTBEAMedia, 'a contemporary Christian content provider' that offers cinematic fare such as Heaven, How I Got Here: A Night with the Thief on the Cross. That hour-long drama stars Stephen Baldwin as a thief who dies on a crucifix several feet away from Jesus Christ. Baldwin claims none of his prior performances have 'so personally impacted me.' This presumably includes his turn in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas.
MyPillow was fined $1 million for 'deceptive ads'
The first thing you'll see upon paying a visit to MyPillow's official website is a promise from Mike Lindell: 'I personally guarantee MyPillow will be the most comfortable pillow you'll ever own.' What you'll no longer see, as of October 2016, are claims that the pillow will have a positive influence on your health, ridding you of insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and a number of other sleep disorders. That's to make no mention of migraines, snoring, and fibromyalgia.
According to Truth in Advertising, MyPillow both directly and indirectly claimed their pillows can potentially ease symptoms of acid reflux, menopause, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis. As NBC News reported in November 2016, MyPillow was subsequently fined $1 million for 'deceptive advertising practices' in a lawsuit that claimed the company 'should have known' that its ads 'were untrue or misleading.' Because of another lawsuit, Lindell reportedly agreed to stop calling himself a 'sleep expert,' too.
'We did nothing wrong,' Lindell told NBC News. 'Rather than fight this, I made a business decision to prevent long and costly litigation.' Meanwhile, Truth in Advertising Executive Director Bonnie Patten sounds pretty certain Lindell did plenty wrong: 'MyPillow was deceiving consumers into buying these expensive pillows thinking that it was going to help their health conditions when he [Mike Lindell] had no science to back up these claims.'
This begs the question: How does Mike Lindell sleep at night?
Why the Better Business Bureau gave MyPillow an 'F'
In January 2017, MyPillow's 'A+' rating from the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota dropped to an 'F,' according to The Washington Post. What changed? The Bureau cited several questionable practices, but highlighted the company's seemingly endless 'Buy One, Get One Free' promotion. If a promotion like that never ends, it's just the price of the product, deceptively worded. (This reportedly violates Federal Trade Commission rules.) According to the Daily Beast, MyPillow commercials regularly advertised the pillows for 'half price' at $99.97 for two pillows, even though they tend to retail at $49.99 a pop. This boils down to one cent of savings.
In an interview with USA Today, Barb Grieman, senior vice president of the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota, claims MyPillow was warned about the problem: 'They said that they didn't really understand that that was a problem, but that they couldn't change it at that time. .. They felt that it would be too distressful for their company.' Asked why the offer was still being advertised after the rating drop, Lindell says it was because he'd already pre-paid for his advertising spots and didn't want his so customers to be 'confused.'
Lindell suspects the bureau's decision had more to do with the fact that he supports Donald Trump. 'Really, you're sure it's not about the election?' he crowed in an interview withCBS, adding: 'I firmly believe that the only explanation is political.'
Trump says Mike Lindell makes a 'great' pillow
As the expression goes, Mike Lindell and Donald Trump are as thick as thieves. According to Lindell's website, Trump became interested in Lindell's entrepreneurial spirit, which led to their first meeting in August 2016 at Trump Tower. Eschewing the small talk, they reportedly hunkered down and got right to the subject of religion. Lindell apparently kicked things up a notch by telling Trump he was a 'divine appointment.' He left the meeting convinced that 'Donald Trump is going to be the most amazing president in history.'
Both the president and the first lady are allegedly huge fans of MyPillow. According to Think Progress, a Trump rally in June 2018 quickly devolved into an infomercial of sorts, with Trump rapturously singing MyPillow's praises: '[Lindell] does make a great product, great pillows,' he said. 'I actually use them, believe it or not.'
The president promoted Lindell and MyPillow again during — of all things — a Coronavirus Task Force Briefing in the White House Rose Garden on March 30, 2020. But it's not quite as strange as it sounds. Lindell and other manufacturers shifted their processes to produce much-needed personal protective equipment in the effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, so Trump invited them to inform the nation of their efforts. Lindell did just that, followed by some 'off the cuff' remarks in which he made it clear that he believes Trump's election (like his Lindell's pillow design) was a result of God's 'grace.'
The MyPillow guy's talk-show appearances devolve into advertisements
In August 2017, Mike Lindell appeared on CNBC to explain why he's 'standing by' President Donald Trump: 'He's not a racist. He's an amazing person, and he will persevere and get through and get to his agenda.' The appearance is notable because Lindell's visit becomes something of a subliminal advertisement for MyPillow. As he speaks, digital signage keeps popping up, telegraphing various alleged selling points about the product. The messaging proudly touts MyPillow's 'patented interlocking fill' and the fact that it 'adjusts to individual sleep neeeds [sic].' In the end, the effect is not unlike many of the official MyPillow commercials, which ape the style and setting of contemporary talk shows, with Lindell as the esteemed guest.
Alice more. Interviewing Lindell presents something of a conflict of interest for networks. During a 2017 interview with CBS anchor Esme Murphy, she made the point of saying: 'In the interest of full disclosure, Mr. Lindell is a frequent advertiser on WCCO Television, and has also purchased an hour of airtime tonight after our late local news for the airing of a special that he produced called The Mike Lindell Story: An American Dream.'
Is Mike Lindell really a ladies man?
Mike Lindell, who was once dubbed President Donald Trump's 'new best friend' by the Daily News, isn't just a favorite among conservative TV pundits. He's apparently somewhat of a ladies man — at least if you're reading the tabloids, which seem to be almost obsessed with this bizarre detail about him. Apparently, the infomercial star was a hot ticket at Trump's inauguration, and a headline from City Pages alleges the pillow connoisseur was the 'hot stud ladies man' of the definitely well-attended event. It's so sad to think Mike Pence was glossed over for that title.
In 2017, Page Six unabashedly reported that 'ladies love' the divorced former crack addict. Per the report, 'women flocked to Lindell' at the Empire State Inaugural Kickoff despite the presence of 'big names including Newt Gingrich and Jon Voight.' Apparently, a group of 'attractive blond women' approached the millionaire as he humble-bragged to the tabloid, 'A lot of people recognize me from the MyPillow ads, and they often stop and ask for pictures. It's a blessing.' Clearly, Lindell knows what women want: to stand in the presence of a '70s-style mustache and to get a good night's sleep.
Mike Lindell is a film financier
Mike Lindell doesn't just hawk pricey pillows. The star has jumped into an entirely new field. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lindell is officially a Hollywood financier. In 2018, the pillow mogul financed his second motion picture. But Lindell, who's 'worth an estimated $300 million,' has a strict code when choosing his projects. 'I don't get into things for the money; I get into them if the message is right,' he told THR.
The multimillionaire first embarked on this new path by investing in Church People, a Stephen Baldwin-led Christian comedy. After that, he dumped $1 million into a flick called Unplanned from the makers of the Christian blockbuster hit God's Not Dead, which grossed $61 million in the box office. Per THR's report, Unplanned was secretly filmed because of its controversial stance on Planned Parenthood, and Lindell was responsible for about one sixth of the project's overall funding. He also made a cameo in the film where he helps bulldoze a Planned Parenthood location in favor of a headquarters for the anti-abortion group 40 Days for Life. 'I'm pro-life and I'm happy to do it,' he told THR.
For Lindell's third project, the star intended to finance a film based on his book What are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO. Yes, one day we're probably going to have a MyPillow guy biopic.
Laura Ingraham won't #BoycottMyPillow
If there's one thing about Mike Lindell, it's that he sticks strongly to his convictions. The star was one of the few advertisers who did not pull their ads from Laura Ingraham's show after high school shooting survivor David Hogg called for a boycott of the Fox News host.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the boycott was sparked after Ingraham reportedly taunted the Marjory Stoneman Douglas student on social media over his college rejections. In an interview, Hogg had mentioned that he didn't get into four University of California schools (hey, rejections happen to even the smartest kids). 'David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it,' she tweeted. '(Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA .. totally predictable given acceptance rates).'
Ingraham later apologized, but advertisers like Nestle, Jounson & Johnson, TripAdvisor, Hulu, and Expedia had already pulled out. MyPillow was not among them. 'I did not take my advertising down from [The Ingraham Angle] and [Fox News],' Lindell tweeted. 'Nor do I intend to.' According to the Daily Caller, after Lindell's announcement, Hogg supporters called for a boycott of MyPillow using the hashtag #BoycottMyPillow; however, it would appear that sales remained strong.
Mike Lindell helped post Kyle Rittenhouse's bail
Mike Lindell was back in the news in November 2020 for giving some cash to Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen who became a national headline after fatally shooting two people and injuring one during the protests in Kenosha, Wis. According to CNN, the protests, which took place in August, followed the death of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was killed in a police shooting a couple of days prior.
ABC 7 reported that Rittenhouse, who turned himself into the police, was charged with 'first-degree intentional homicide, attempted homicide, reckless homicide, recklessly endangering safety and illegal possession of a firearm.' He was being held on a $2 million bond because he faced a 'mandatory life sentence' or 'likely decades of time' behind bars, according to Kenosha County Commissioner Loren Keating, who spoke to CNN. Thus, the teen was declared 'flight risk.'
Lindell ended up helping Rittenhouse post the enormous bail sum. In a tweet, the teen's attorney, Lin Wood, claimed the MyPillow CEO and actor Ricky Schroder donated to Rittenhouse's #FightBack campaign, which sends money to the Kyle Rittenhouse Defense fund.
| Private | |
| Industry | Pillows |
|---|---|
| Founded | July 1, 2009[1] |
| Founder | Mike Lindell |
| Headquarters | Chaska, Minnesota, United States |
Number of employees | 1,500 |
My Pillow, Inc. is a pillow manufacturing company based in Chaska, Minnesota, United States.[2] The company was founded in 2009 by Mike Lindell, who invented and patented My Pillow, an open-cell, poly-foam pillow design. From 2004 to 2009, My Pillows were sold through Lindell's Night Moves Minnesota, LLC and have been sold through My Pillow, Inc. since 2009.[3] My Pillow has sold over 41 million pillows, due mostly to TV infomercials.[4][5] The company started with five employees in 2004 and had 1,500 employees as of 2017.[6]
My Pillow, Inc. has been fined, and has settled various lawsuits related to misleading advertising. The company has made scientifically unsupported claims that its pillows could treat and cure disease, including multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy.[7][8][9]
History[edit]
Origin[edit]
My Pillow Company Headquarters Address
My Pillow was founded by Mike Lindell, a resident of the U.S. state of Minnesota.[10][11] To help fund the development of the pillow, Lindell sold four bars he owned in Carver County, Minnesota, and mortgaged his own house.[2][6] At first, Lindell hand-sewed the pillows himself and handled all the sales and distribution with help from his family.[6]
The first My Pillow was sold in 2005 at a kiosk in Eden Prairie Center, a mall in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.[6] For the next six years, the company struggled while selling at mall kiosks, state fairs, and trade shows.[12]
Promotion[edit]
The company's success took off after launching an infomercial in October 2011.[13] The thirty-minute show was shot in one day in front of a live studio audience and cost $500,000 to produce and launch.[14] As of September 2013, the infomercial was still running an average of 200 times per day on local and national networks. Since it first aired, My Pillow has sold more than 30 million pillows and grown from 50 employees to over 1,500.[5][14][15]
In July 2015, Lindell and My Pillow sponsored an attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for the world's largest pillow fight at a St. Paul Saints baseball game. The fight featured 6,261 participants, beating a previous record of 4,201.[16]
In May 2018, Lindell and My Pillow again broke the Guinness World Record for the world's largest pillow fight, this time at the evangelistic PULSE Movement event held at the U.S. Bank Stadium, after Lindell led over 45,000 people in prayer.[17][18][19]
In late March 2018, student activists from the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, including David Hogg, called for a boycott of advertisers on the television show The Ingraham Angle on Fox News Channel, after host Laura Ingraham made disparaging comments about Hogg. Dozens of advertisers subsequently vowed to no longer pay for advertising on The Ingraham Angle, but My Pillow continued to advertise on the show and increased their advertising buy on The Ingraham Angle by 625 percent during the first week in April 2018.[20]
My Pillow purchased more advertising on the Fox News Tucker Carlson Tonight program than any other advertiser, as of June 2020, after many major companies had stopped supporting the show.[21] A data firm estimated that nearly 38 percent of Carlson's 2020 advertising revenue had come from My Pillow at half-year.[22]
Operations[edit]
The company's headquarters, call center and customer service center are located in Chaska, Minnesota.[2] My Pillow manufactures pillows, mattresses, mattress toppers and covers, Giza Cotton sheets, towels and pet beds[23] at its 70,000 square-foot manufacturing plant in Shakopee, producing approximately 25,000 pillows per day.[15][24] Some products are marketed as 'proudly American made'.[25]
Retail[edit]
My Pillow opened its first retail store in Burnsville, Minnesota, in 2012 and, as of 2017, had grown to 17 locations in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska.[26] My Pillow products are also offered on QVC, at major retailers, trade shows, and from the My Pillow website.[13][27]
Covid-19 pandemic production shift[edit]
In March 2020, FOX News reported that founder Mike Lindell had announced that 75% of the company's production was shifting to making cotton face masks to donate to health care workers for use during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that 'Masks will not be available to public to purchase',[28] though the cotton masks later appeared for sale on the My Pillow website.[29]
Design and technology[edit]
My Pillow products are a patented design, involving a mix of different-sized pieces of open-cell poly-foam. Lindell claims to have tested 94 different foams before deciding on the right one.[6] The pieces are chopped to specification by a machine Lindell developed based on a piece of farm equipment. The mix also contains a resin that enables the foam to retain much of its shape when molded to the user's preference. The pillows are non-allergenic, dust mite-resistant, washable, and dryable.[6] In 2013, QVC awarded My Pillow its Q-Star Award for Product Concept of the Year.[30]
Lawsuits and settlement[edit]
In April 2016, a class action lawsuit was proposed for the pillows being falsely advertised, among the complaints being that Lindell is marketed as a 'Sleep Expert,' despite having no board certification or special training in sleep medicine.[8] The Better Business Bureau received 220 complaints regarding the company from 2013–2016.[31]
In August 2016, the New York State Attorney General's office charged that My Pillow failed to collect and remit over $500,000 in sales tax. The company denied any wrongdoing and agreed to pay $1.1 million in settlement.[32]
On November 1, 2016, My Pillow agreed to pay $1 million ($995,000 in civil penalties and $100,000 to California charities benefiting the homeless and victims of domestic violence) to settle a false advertising lawsuit brought in Alameda County Superior Court by Alameda County and eight other California counties.[33] The lawsuit challenged the company's marketing claims, which asserted without proof that its pillows could treat symptoms of fibromyalgia, restless leg syndrome, sleep apnea, cerebral palsy, acid reflux, and other conditions.[33] As part of the settlement, the company was banned 'from making claims in California that its pillows can cure or treat diseases and their symptoms without a human trial to back up the statements.'[33] 'In addition, My Pillow must stop promoting itself as the 'official pillow' of the National Sleep Foundation because it failed to disclose its financial connection with the foundation to consumers.'[32]
In November 2017, the lawsuit, which challenged the appropriateness of the marketing, packaging, and sale of My Pillow products, including health claims about the product, buy one get one promotions, and the use of third party endorsements and logos, was settled.[7]
Ratings and reviews[edit]
In January 2017, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) announced it had revoked the accreditation for My Pillow and had lowered their rating from an A+ to an F[34] based upon numerous consumer complaints. The main issue addressed by the BBB was the constant use of their buy one, get one free offer. The BBB's Code of Advertising requires that offers or discounts must be made for a limited time, or the deal becomes the normal price of the product.[35] It remained an active promotion, as of August 2020.[36]
A 2016 Consumer Reports review of the company's pillows found a mixed reception after at-home testing, finding that 'only one-third of the group said they would buy MyPillow again.'[37]
Philanthropy[edit]
A portion of My Pillow proceeds goes to the Lindell Foundation, a charity that assists addicts, veterans, cancer patients, and other people in need.[24][38] In March 2015, My Pillow donated pillows to the Sandra J. Schulze American Cancer SocietyHope Lodge, which houses patients and their caregivers when traveling for treatment.[39][40] As of 2017, the company was donating a pillow to charities such as homeless shelters and hospitals for each order made in the associated Minnesota community.[41] My Pillow donated 60,000 pillows in 2017 to Hurricane Harvey victims in Texas.[42]
References[edit]
- ^'My Pillow Inc'. www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
- ^ abcMichael J Lindell, 'MyPillow HQ moves to Chaska,'Chaska Herald, June 16, 2015.
- ^'CASE 0:18-cv-00196 Document 1 Filed 01/24/18 Page 1 of 19'(PDF). DuetsBlog. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
- ^Rothman, David. 'The story of the My Pillow king'. CBSN. CBSN. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
- ^ abWells, Jane. 'How this entrepreneur went from a crack addict to a self-made multimillionaire'. CNBC. CNBC LLC. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^ abcdefJohn Vomhof Jr., 'My Pillow soars after informercial,'Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal, June 22, 2012.
- ^ abBucher, Anne (November 28, 2017). 'MyPillow BOGO Class Action Settlement'. Top Class Actions. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
- ^ abTassin, Paul (April 11, 2016). 'My Pillow Class Action Says Pillows Are Falsely Advertised'. Top Class Actions. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
- ^'My Pillow Health Claims Lawsuit Settlement'.
- ^Green, Penelope (February 11, 2015). 'The Pillow Cure'. The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
- ^C.J. (January 16, 2010). 'Case of the Missing Pillows'. Star Tribune. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
- ^Baverman, Laura (December 16, 2013). 'Dangers of sudden success sink in for MyPillow founder on eve of new infomercial'. Upstart Business Journal. Archived from the original on September 15, 2014.
- ^ abSam Black, 'My Pillow moving 200 jobs to Shakopee, opening retail stores,'Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal, August 23, 2012.
- ^ abJohn Ewoldt, 'Sales stay plump for Chanhassen-based MyPillow,'Star Tribune, September 15, 2013.
- ^ ab'The Man Behind The Passion Of MyPillow,'CBS Minnesota, December 25, 2013.
- ^'Saint Paul Saints hold world's largest pillow fight'. Burlington Free Press. July 21, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
- ^'Largest pillow fight'. Guinness World Records. Guinness World Records Limited. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
- ^'PULSE Events'. PULSE. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
- ^'Twin Cities Pulse Event'. Michael J Lindell. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
- ^Berr, Jonathan (April 12, 2018). 'Ad Prices On Fox's 'The Ingraham Angle' Fall In The Wake Of Advertiser Boycott'. Forbes. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
- ^Hsu, Tiffany (June 12, 2020). 'Fox News Host Tucker Carlson Loses More Advertisers'. The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
- ^Smith, Haley Victory (July 7, 2020). 'Thirty-eight percent of Tucker Carlson's advertising came from MyPillow in 2020, data firm estimates'. Washington Examiner. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
- ^'MyPillow Mattress'. www.mypillow.com. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
- ^ ab'My Pillow' founder opens up about addiction,'Salvation Army Website, December 29, 2015.
- ^J.W. Najarian, 'Michael J. Lindell Inventor of My Pillow and Founder of the Lindell Foundation,'On Purpose Magazine, April 6, 2012.
- ^'Places to Buy,'My Pillow Website, retrieved January 14, 2016.
- ^'The Preposterous Success Story of America's Pillow King'. Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Bloomberg L.P.
- ^'MyPillow shifting 75% of production to make face masks for hospitals'. Fox 9 KMSP. March 25, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
- ^'MyPillow Face Masks'. MyPillow.com. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
- ^Nichole Dobo, 'Pillow business earns QVC award,'The News Journal, February 20, 2014.
- ^'BBB Business Profile – My Pillow, Inc'.
- ^ abFarrell, Mary H.J., 'My Pillow Settles Consumer Lawsuit Over Health Claims for $1 Million', Consumer Reports, November 03, 2016
- ^ abcFilipa A. Ioannou. 'MyPillow maker to pay $1 million in false advertising settlement'. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 1, 2016.
- ^''My Pillow' downgraded to an F rating by Better Business Bureau'. WTHR. January 4, 2017.
- ^'BBB revokes MyPillow accreditation'. ABC 10. KXTV. January 2, 2017. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ^'Premium Classic MyPillow Buy One Get One'. MyPillow.com. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
- ^Lehrman, Celia Kuperszmid (November 3, 2016). 'Should MyPillow Become Your Pillow?'. Consumer Reports. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
- ^J.W. Najarian, 'MyPillow and Orange County Choppers Unveil Custom Motorcycle at Mall of America,'On Purpose Magazine, April 6, 2012.
- ^Tran, Hannah (March 4, 2015). 'Large Pillow Donation Brings Comfort to Hope Lodge'. KAAL. Archived from the original on July 4, 2015.
- ^Hansel, Jeff (March 5, 2015). 'Pillow donation brings comfort to cancer patients'. PostBulletin.com. Archived from the original on May 10, 2017.
- ^Stanwood, Maggie (August 8, 2017). 'MyPillow giving pillows away to charities'. Southwest News Media. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
- ^Winter, Deena (August 31, 2017). 'MyPillow to donate 60,000 pillows to Hurricane Harvey victims'. Southwest News Media. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
External links[edit]
- Official website
My Pillow Company Headquarters Phone Number
