If Your Pillow Can Be “Good,” What Else Can Be?

The existence of Good Pillow, the brand new firm from gun management activist David Hogg, after all implies the existence of a Unhealthy Pillow. That dangerous pillow, in Hogg’s telling, comes from MyPillow, the corporate began by Mike Lindell—the pillow-cradling, maybe-Jane-Krakowski romancing, and Trump-supporting conspiracy theorist. Good Pillow was born as a pure rival to MyPillow: there isn’t but a product to purchase, however Hogg already guarantees that his firm will align with progressive values and deal with its staff nicely. Whereas there’s no option to know but if the pillow might be good, it’s already Good. The battle traces are drawn: if you should buy a Good Pillow, why would you ever purchase a foul one?

Politicized manufacturers are hardly a brand new phenomenon. This got here into clear view on the onset of the Trump presidency, which urged manufacturers to decide on sides on political points. The businesses that stood silently on the sidelines, or launched mealy-mouthed apolitical statements, had been seen as complicit within the combat towards the problem of the day, from sexual assault to racism and police brutality. And the businesses that did tackle a political bent, or that leaned into their longstanding values, benefited: Nike put Colin Kaepernick front-and-center in a sequence of profitable advert campaigns, whereas Ben & Jerry’s continued to be the ice cream of selection for resistors. The dynamic labored each methods, too. Whereas Lindell’s latest launch of a falsehood-filled “documentary” prompted main retailers like Kohl’s and Mattress, Tub & Past to drop MyPillow, the corporate nonetheless finds a heat embrace on Fox Information. Whether or not you had been on the correct or the left, you spent the previous couple of years “buying your values” or “voting with your dollars.”

Hogg’s Good Pillow is the logical conclusion of this wave of brand name politicization. This isn’t a shopper items model that wound down a path of elevated radicalization. As an alternative, Good Pillow begins with a agency political perspective. The entire conceit of the corporate is based on the concept that it’s Good. The pillow right here is just not precisely the purpose, both. The purpose for Hogg and enterprise associate William LeGate is to create a values-driven firm: earlier than even finalizing a product, Hogg has already pledged to assist charities, use made-in-America union labor, and make use of a various board of administrators. Hogg could possibly be making *something—*and it’s not arduous to think about a future the place Good Pillow expands to make all number of Good merchandise. We already stay in a gift the place many firms and types try to advantage sign their option to gross sales.

Firstly of the Trump administration, values-oriented procuring was on the high of customers’ minds. Organizations like Sleeping Giants (shock: Bad itself) sprung up as a watchdog that saved monitor of firms that also benefited from promoting on Breitbart and Fox Information programming. These firms then grew to become the topic of boycotts aimed toward getting them to cease interacting with these platforms. Hogg appears to be having a bet that politicized procuring is right here to remain—and is savvily taking that boycott concept and flipping it on its head. “If progressives really want to make some real change we need to master the buycott,” he tweeted. 

Neglect mattress linens. Hogg envisions a market the place all our merchandise are ethical: who’s to say we will’t get into our Good automobiles sporting our Good sneakers, decide up our Good groceries, and are available house to sit down in our Good chairs? In any case that work, we’ll be able to relaxation our heads for virtuous sleep on our Good pillows.