The controversial pillow manufacturer Mike Lindell has become known through an advertisement that many believe to be an allusion to neo-Nazi slogans – an accusation that he rejected in an interview with the Washington Post on Monday and spoke of a politically motivated contract killing.

“Sleep like a dream with our standard MyPillow for only $14.88!” says an ad that has been viewed millions of times and shared again by Lindell on Monday despite the strong backlash.

The retail price is less than a third of the pillow’s usual price of $49.98 – and is a mix of two pairs of numbers closely associated with white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups, Newsweek noted.

The number 14 is part of the “14 words,” a phrase coined by white supremacist David Lane that says “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children,” according to the Anti-Defamation League. The number 88, in turn, is used to represent “Heil Hitler” – since H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, the organization added.

The accusation quickly brought Lindell and his company MyPillow to widespread notoriety. Neo-Nazis and white supremacists cheered the apparent approval and republished the ad publicly, Newsweek reported.

“You’ve heard of ‘Mein Kampf’, but have you ever read the sequel ‘Mein Kampfort’?” one person tweeted about the disturbing allegations.

When contacted by The Washington Post on Monday, however, Lindell vehemently denied these allegations – but continued to share the ad online without any adjustments or clarifications.

“I have no idea what this is about,” Lindell insisted, adding that the 88 cents is just a price point often used by companies like Walmart.

“We’ve done this many times,” he continued. “It had nothing to do with whatever you want to make of it.”

Lindell said the allegations were just another opportunity for people to attack his company because of his political beliefs – particularly his plan to secure future elections after he outspokenly expressed conspiracy theories that the last election was stolen from Donald Trump.

“This whole thing is another attack on Mike Lindell and MyPillow because I want to move to hand-counted ballots in our country,” Lindell said.

“I have a plan to get rid of the machines and that’s what it’s about,” he continued. “For the last year, they have been relentlessly attacking my company and me.”

Even if Lindell was not responsible, the award was a “disturbing wink to the Nazis,” said Seth Cotlar, a history professor at Willamette University in Oregon.

“I doubt Lindell is behind this or would even understand the reference, but that doesn’t really matter,” Cotlar wrote on Bluesky.

Regardless of Lindell’s intentions, neo-Nazis online cheered his announcement on X, and his ad was publicly shared by racist accounts, Newsweek reported.

“Let’s go, MyPillow!” wrote the owner of an account called RadioWeimar, whose bio states that “the white revolution is the only solution.”

Another racist account, this one called Balkanomic, reposted the ad with the caption “$14.88? How could you pass up such a great deal?”

Lindell, a college dropout and former drug addict, built his $100 million company with 500 employees from scratch using an impromptu viral infomercial, Newsweek reported.

But his road became rocky after he spread Trump’s false claims that he had actually won the 2020 election – and major retailers subsequently removed MyPillow from their shelves due to low demand.

The move cost Lindell, who also runs a right-wing podcast, more than $100 million.

The ardent Trump supporter and nervous pillow maker was also forced to pay $5 million to a computer forensics expert who proved that President Biden had actually defeated Trump in 2020.

Lindell had publicly promised in 2021 that he would pay the money to anyone who was able to do so. A judge ordered him to pay the sum as soon as it turned out that he was wrong.