Fox says MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has decided to 'pause' his pillow ads amid election crusade

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CNN

By Brian Stelter,

New York (CNN Business)Mike Lindell's pillows have been propping up Fox News for years. But now the relationship is on "pause."

Here's the context for the Thursday evening announcement: Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, has had beef with Fox for months. He brought it up with The Atlantic's Anne Applebaum when she interviewed him for a profile titled "The MyPillow Guy Really Could Destroy Democracy."

Applebaum said Lindell "told me that if it weren't for attacks by 'the left' — by which he means Politico, the Daily Beast, and, presumably, me — his message would never get out, because Fox News ignores him."

In addition to selling pillows, Lindell also moonlights as a talking head at far-right outlets. He has been consumed by an illogical attempt to prove that his pal Donald Trump won the 2020 election that he actually lost.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/29/media/mike-lindell-fox-news-mypillow-ads/index.html

[JohnnyRingo]

1. Another genius business decision.

I'd like to see a graph of "My Pillow" sales beginning in 2012 and see if I can tell when he started opening his mouth.

[overleft]

2. Someone thank him. I'm sick of seeing his lying ugly mug anyway.

[NCDem47]

3. Clearly, throwing marketing dollars at these awful products is NOT producing results.

Why spend then? The word is out. THEY. ARE. CRAPPY. Business has dried up.

Plus, raging asshole who has totally polticized his product and sent it to the dust bin.

[WA-03 Democrat]

4. When a business is in trouble

Marketing expenses and every expense goes under a microscope. The ads are not bring in sales. The ads are not the problem. The business and the owner are one in the same nut. It’s toxic.

[underpants]

8. He runs a butt ton of ads in Fox prime time.

I’ve heard some on talk radio recently too. All with steep discounts. The $70 pillow he made a fortune on are now $30 with the specific discount code.

I don’t understand purposefully limiting yourself to only one market , shutting out at least 1/2.

[WA-03 Democrat]

9. The guy forgot the lesson of "holes"

When you find yourself digging one and then realize it, you stop digging and get out. Mike brought in the backhoe and screamed “100 feet deeper!”

The business is broken beyond repair. He should sell what is left so he can dedicate himself full time to hitting rock bottom.

[underpants]

10. Yep. Like all things attached to Trump.

If it doesn’t happen otherwise at some point he’ll set you adrift just to enjoy watching you float away.

[WA-03 Democrat]

11. Cost of goods on a crappy pillow

Is $5 rounding up. There should be enough for a profit margin. They should do direct sales only and erase everything Mike. The retail side imploded already but that is one less big hand to grease so lowering the price makes sense. I suspect he is funding his personal “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” from the business. Nothing is sticking for him and he keeps doubling down. More than one screw loose but I am not a Doctor

[ProfessorGAC]

24. Sorry But, No

It costs them way more than $5 a pillow to make them.
They've sold 46 million pillows in the last 10 years. Their high is 6 million.
Before human overhead payments, their cost to produce is nearly $60 million.
That's $10 a pillow before compensation, SG&A, debt service and debt capital repayment.
Their best pretax margins on $150 million in revenue was 20.4%.
So, overall it cost at least $20 to make, market & ship.

And, that $70 cost was nearly always a BOGOF, so it's 2 pillows for seventy buck.
Now, they're dumping inventory, selling them for $30 for 2. Since they lost major retailers & the brand is toxic, the sales volume has plummeted. The safety stock threshold for inventory went way down.
They're shedding inventory to reduce carrying costs & abate some cash flow hemorrhage.

I've done a deep dive on their financials (which as a privately held company, is tough) because I didn't believe his claims about his net worth.
My numbers prove he's nowhere close to as wealthy as he claims (meaning he lies).

[tishaLA]

29. I saw a tweet yesterday that analyzed Tooker's advertisers

and Mr Pillow accounts for more than 40% of his ad buys. I'm sure they can fill in some of that with reverse mortgage and catheter ads at reduced ad rates, but it has to be a huge loss to white nationalist broadcasting.

[AngryOldDem]

5. Probably talking to Newsmax.

In the meantime, the world mourns.

[33taw]

6. Trump wouldn't even talk to him after the election.

[totodeinhere]

22. Although the two have appeared together on stage since then. n/t

[underpants]

7. So wall to wall "Fruits and Veggie" supplement ads?

My daughter loves watching Tucker with me. We laugh and rag on him for whatever we watch. They have tons of commercials for a fruits and veggies supplement. She cracks up about that too “WOW fruits and vegetables huh? Who knew?” I was going to buy some for her as a joke for her birthday and then I saw I couldn’t get them at a retail store and it is $99 per two bottle package. Monthly subscriptions are $70 and until this year there was no way to manage your account. No sign in. You had to call their customer service.

[Mysterian]

12. I hope he's running out of money

Crackhead traitor needs to go live under a bridge.

[aggiesal]

17. Preferably a crumbling bridge! n/t

[twodogsbarking]

13. In addition to selling pillows, Lindell also moonlights as a talking head at far-right outlets.

That is priceless.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

14. tucker lost his main advertiser

Link to tweet

[Initech]

15. Does he have any advertisements left? Is Cash 4 Gold still a thing?

[Initech]

16. The sooner crazy pillow man goes away the better!

[Evolve Dammit]

18. If I had enough money, I'd buy as many Fox stations as I could and it would be 24/7 yoga/ meditation

[Bengus81]

19. Pausing them because he's losing money would be my guess. But blame it on FOX Mikey,I don't care

[Gregory Peccary]

20. His pillows need to be put to sleep

[True Blue American]

21. Translation

My pillows are not selling, I ran out of money.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. In Other Words...

...he can't afford them anymore, even though a minute of advertising on hannity is cheap.

[IronLionZion]

25. Americans are sleeping much better during the new presidency

and don't need his shitty pillows

[PSPS]

26. His ads of late are telling

His ad buys now seem to be mostly in low-priced slots, maybe even pre-emptable slots. So he's short on cash. Another bad indicator is that the ads have been modified to show him complaining how "they are trying to cancel me" and goes on to breathlessly offer his products "directly from me" for a "never seen before discount" price that is about 1/3 of what they were priced before.

The first of these ("they are trying to cancel me" ) could be dismissed as just demographic marketing (i.e., the MAGA demo,) but the 2/3 off what the price was just a month or two before is indicative of a company very short on cash and circling the drain.

None of this would be happening to him and his company if he had, you know, stuck to selling his products instead of trying to become a political figure. He really went off the deep end.

[monkeyman1]

27. there should be a public pain in the ass clause ?????

[Mike Nelson]

28. Yikes!

... that's a big chunk of ad dollars FOX loses in prime time! He one of their biggest advertisers. They won't get Coca-Cola or many other companies to pick up the ad time... guess they will have to double up on Tom Sellick!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

30. Two weeks until Reinstatement Day, Mikey-boy. . . . nt