Nearly one in four Dutch teenagers aged 12-16 have tried vaping. That’s around 240,000 young people engaging with something addictive, harmful to developing brains and still widely misunderstood.

The Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport wanted a message that felt real without lecturing, shaming or talking down to teens. The message needed to feel relevant and rooted in youth culture. This anti-vaping campaign uses music and culture to deliver a targeted public health message in a way teenagers actually engage with. Music became the way in.

Challenge

Teens don’t typically engage with traditional public-service campaigns. 

To succeed, the campaign needed to:

  • Be led by voices young people genuinely listen to and trust

  • Sound like contemporary youth music, not a PSA in disguise

  • Follow a social-first strategy that could spread organically

The goal wasn’t just awareness. It was emotional connection and cultural relevance.

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Approach

Working closely with the Music & Culture Department and production team, we focused on identifying artists with real influence across the 12-16 age group. Stefania, Bizzey and Sterre Koning each bring different audiences, but all share credibility, visibility and a strong relationship with their fans. Importantly, their connection to the topic was genuine.

Sterre and Stefania have consistently spoken against vaping and the lack of understanding around long-term effects. Bizzey brought a different perspective, openly sharing his own experience with vaping and how difficult it was for him to stop.

Rather than asking the artists to adapt to a public health brief, MassiveMusic built a track that fits the current youth music landscape. Catchy, familiar and flexible, the song reflects each artist’s individual sound while working as a collective.

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Solution

Ik Zeg Nee became both a song and a statement.

On December 3rd, Dutch artists Stefania, Bizzey and Sterre Koning released Ik Zeg Nee, a track and music video built around a simple idea: strength comes from setting boundaries. Together, they form The Organs, a fictional band representing the lungs, heart and brain, each facing the effects of vaping. Music carried the message emotionally, while the artists’ voices made it credible and believable.


By empowering the talent to shape the narrative themselves, the campaign avoided moralising and instead invited conversation. Saying no wasn’t framed as restrictive or boring, but as self-aware, confident and strong. The campaign forms part of the Dutch Action Plan Against Vaping and reframes refusal as confident, cool and completely valid within youth culture.

The social-first rollout allowed the message to spread organically through the artists’ communities, turning influence into impact. The artists led the storytelling through their own channels, using their own tone and humour. Behind-the-scenes moments, interviews and short-form content all felt native to their platforms, not imposed by a campaign framework.

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Results

By leading with trusted artists and a culturally relevant music-led campaign, Ik Zeg Nee sparked engagement, conversation and organic amplification among teenage audiences. The message landed not because it was enforced, but because it felt authentic to the people delivering it.

The campaign stands as proof that when institutions step into culture instead of speaking at it, music can do what traditional public health communication often can’t: open up space for real dialogue, reflection and meaningful influence.

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Credits

Music Production & Artist Selection: MassiveMusic Amsterdam

  • Senior Music & Culture Manager: Tristan Leopold

  • Creative Producer: Dennis de Rochemont

  • Director of Partnerships: Charlotte Grotenhuis

Agency: The Family (part of DOT)

  • Executive Creative Directors: Lukas van de Ven, Eduard van Bennekom

  • Strategy: Maud van Hecke

  • Account: Josselyn Ineke

  • Producer: Vittoria Robijns

Animation Studio: Studio Mals

PR: HPB | Het PR Bureau

Client: Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) – Mariëlle Verlouw

Public Information & Communication Service: Irene de Roos, Janice van den Bosch

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