David Hogg shares rival MyPillow’s marketing plan

NEW YORK: It’s no joke: David Hogg is starting a pillow business, and the gun control activist wants people to know he’s dead serious about the adventure .

The idea originated last week when software developer and entrepreneur William LeGate tweeted about the launch of a competitor to MyPillow, whose founder, Mike Lindell, is a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump. Lindell has repeatedly shared unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, including an infomercial.

Hogg told PRWeek that he immediately messaged LeGate, someone he vaguely knew via Twitter but had never met in person. The two began planning rival MyPillow, sharing updates on Twitter as they progressed.

Hogg, 20, attends Harvard University, so his title at the pillow company will be co-founder and advisor so he can focus on his studies, he said. LeGate spearheads the business, while Hogg helps with promotion and bigger ideas for pillow and product design. Hogg and LeGate want to build the company and its products properly from the ground up.

“The message we want to send is that it’s possible to do good and help people sleep better while doing good,” Hogg said.

For the yet-to-be-named company, Hogg wants to create unionized jobs in the United States, ideally employing veterans and incarcerated people. However, Hogg stressed that these were “just ideas” and said he and LeGate were in talks with organizations to bring the plans to fruition.

“We’re even open to hiring the people who work at MyPillow, if that company goes bankrupt,” Hogg said. “They also have families, and they are not Mike [Lindell].”

Another goal is sustainable sourcing. Hogg said he spoke to United Farm Workers to get in touch with the right agricultural commodity groups that “have the best practices we can find.”

Although the pillow company is a for-profit organization, Hogg said he wants to donate a percentage of profits to a different social progressive nonprofit each month.

“We’re hoping people can go to our website and vote for their favorite nonprofit every month and have some money given to them for that month,” Hogg said.

He added that he wanted to make the business as ethical as possible, but not in a “performative” way.

“Most businesses or businesses put a rainbow sticker on something and say, ‘We support the LGBTQ community,’ but they don’t really show up when needed,” Hogg said. “We wouldn’t brag about it; we would rather act than say we care.

Even though the company’s actual product doesn’t exist, 30 angel investors have reached out to Hogg and LeGate, said Hogg, who was honored as Communicator of the Year at the 2019 US PRWeek Awards.

“It’s exciting to see such a level of interest in a company that just wants to do something right,” Hogg said. “I want our company to be a leader of the movement in the business world, to show people what transparency looks like and to show consumers that you can use the power of your purchases as a form of activism to drive business to improve. We hope to prove it.

Comedy as a marketing tool
Hogg promises the company will focus on truth and a commitment to quality and ethics, but he also wants to make messaging fun.

“We want to use comedy and memes to advertise through earned media on social media,” Hogg said. “There’s a shaving brand that’s made some really funny videos that we love the style of. We’re not going to copy them, but likewise we’ll use comedy to help market that and help give people a good night’s sleep and proving that the world isn’t completely filled with bad people who are just there for themselves.”

A public relations firm isn’t backing the company, but Hogg said he was “open” to working with interested agencies.

“We will see if it is necessary [to bring on a PR firm] depending on demand,” Hogg said.

Asked about the new venture, Lindell told Axios, “It’s good for them…there’s nothing wrong with competition that doesn’t infringe on someone’s patent.” A representative for MyPillow could not be reached for comment.

Hogg also started selling sneakers and shirts on Redbubble in response to trolls who have harassed him for years, calling him names like “soy boy.” Some of its products have statements such as “proud soy boy”.

“I commodify their trolling through humor,” he said. “If people are going to call me those stupid names, I might as well make money off of it.”

Hogg told PRWeek that since he started selling the products last week, he’s already sold about 500 items and the earnings are helping pay for his therapy.