MyPillow, one of Fox News' biggest advertisers, is pulling its commercials from the cable news behemoth.
Fox News confirmed that Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, was pausing the ads. According to The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news, Lindell was canceling the ads because Fox News would not let him run a commercial that promoted claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
"It's unfortunate Mr. Lindell has chosen to pause his commercial time on Fox News given the level of success he's experienced in building his brand through advertising on the number one cable news network,” a Fox News spokeswoman said in a statement.
MyPillow is one of Fox News’ biggest brand advertisers so far this year, according to analytics firm iSpot.tv. It has run ads with an estimated value of $40 million through July 28, iSpot says. The Wall Street Journal’s report says that MyPillow “has shelled out about $19 million for ad time on the network” year-to-date.
It's worth noting that iSpot.tv and other competitive spending estimators base their estimates on networks' rate cards and how much a brand's ads appear, and does not necessarily reflect how much the brand actually spends once deals are negotiated.
Lindell has faced backlash for promoting conspiracy theories surrounding election results. In January, retailers including Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl’s, H-E-B and Wayfair dropped his products as a result.
Fox News has also come under fire regarding claims made on-air about election fraud, with voting technology companies Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems both filing lawsuits against the company. Fox News filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuits.
