BACKGROUND-AIM:
A common industry tactic is to use celebrity spokespeople to glamorize and normalize tobacco products, especially to target youth. In 2024, Philip Morris International began a partnership with DJ Steve Aoki, a globally popular musician. Philip Morris paid Aoki to put his name on an IQOS device, to promote IQOS on social media, and to perform at IQOS-branded concerts around the world.* It’s no wonder Philip Morris saw him as the perfect partner - Aoki has 19 million followers on social media, almost half of whom are young people under age 25. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) sought to fracture this relationship in order to send the message to celebrities that partnering with Big Tobacco isn’t worth it. *https://manilastandard.net/lifestyle/314513228/steve-aoki-spins-sustainability-into-fashion-with-iqos-recycled-jacket-collab.html

METHODS:
CTFK applied its counter-industry framework to build a strategic campaign to break Steve Aoki’s bond with Philip Morris. CTFK’s campaign put pressure not only on the relationship between Aoki and Philip Morris, but between Aoki and the board of his charitable foundation as well.

RESULTS:
Less than a year later, Aoki stopped posting about IQOS on social media, stopped performing IQOS concerts, and saw a prominent doctor step down from the board of his brain health foundation. He claims that he is no longer partnering with Philip Morris. Additionally, Philip Morris International was legally sanctioned over an IQOS concert in the Philippines, a country in which it’s used to having free rein.

CONCLUSIONS:
We will describe the campaign and discuss the importance of a number of its strategies, including: relationship mapping, coalition work, legal strategy, creativity and flexibility - and how each played a role in making tobacco money too toxic for one celebrity spokesperson and his associates.