As one of the UK’s most unconventional leadership speakers, BJ Cunningham has carved out a reputation for challenging norms and building brands that disrupt the status quo.
Based in Brighton, his journey began with a radical idea: launching DEATH Cigarettes, a brutally honest tobacco brand that shook the industry with its unapologetic message and guerrilla marketing tactics.
A serial entrepreneur with a fearless approach to failure, BJ Cunningham has gone head-to-head with government regulators, global tobacco giants, and even the European Court of Justice.
In this exclusive interview, he shares how his rebellious business philosophy was forged through setbacks, courtroom battles, and a relentless drive to tell the truth—no matter the cost.
Q: Brighton is known for its bold, creative spirit — how did the city’s culture influence your decision to launch such a radical and subversive cigarette brand?
BJ Cunningham: “The inspiration behind it was straightforward. It was, why doesn’t anyone tell the truth, okay? That was the—why isn’t there a beer called Pissed, and why isn’t there a butter called Coronary, and why isn’t there a cigarette called DEATH?
“And it just made me laugh so much. And when I woke up the next day—DEATH Cigarettes. Wouldn’t it be cool? You’d have a skull and crossbones on the packet, be covered in health warnings, and the marketing would be 100% money-back guarantee—you know, if you don’t die, you get your money back. And just all these ideas were coming. They were everything.
“Basically, I decided I’m going to do this. Anything that makes me laugh and keeps making me laugh
—I’m going to do. So, we pledged to donate 10% of our pre-tax profits to cancer research and related charities. The thinking there is straightforward: cancer research needs money, smokers need the cancer research, we needed the smokers—so it created a win-win scenario.
“Then these ideas—win-win scenario, honest tobacco company, ‘Too bad, you’re going to die’—all these things were just… and also, I love fags. I mean, I love smoking. I just love fags. I mean, fags are ace. They deliver every time. And yes, you’re going to die a slow and horrible death, but there’s a massive reward for me involved in that equation. And that is the risk-reward equation of being a smoker.
“So that whole energy and idea was the inspiration behind DEATH. And I realised in that, that branding—brand is… people are… a brand is not a logo, and a brand is not a name, and a brand is not a Pantone colour and a series of rules in a brand guideline. A brand is a promise. And people are loyal to promises. They’re interested in ideas.
“So, having an idea, turning it into a promise, making that promise, and then keeping that promise became the philosophy of DEATH Cigarettes. Which sounds pretty straightforward—it was actually a radical idea at the time. And it gave rise to a phrase. I mean, we were the inspiration behind the idea of guerrilla marketing, because we never had any money.
“So, what we had to do was garner attention by any means possible. And someone said, ‘BJ, how are you doing this? How are you managing to do your marketing on no budget?’ And the answer was, ‘Well, it’s just guerrilla marketing.’ And then that became a phrase.
“DEATH Cigarettes took all of these ideas and put them into effect. I’m delighted to say that we were hated by the government, the anti-smoking lobby, the tobacco industry—effectively everybody you could possibly want to upset, we upset all at the same time. And it was a fantastic, privileged situation.
“And I learned again some very important lessons. One of those lessons was: you can’t sell your product if it’s not on the shelf for sale. Which sounds obvious, but distribution is key. And we had big trouble with DEATH Cigarettes with distribution, because the major tobacco companies own every point of purchase for cigarettes.
“So everywhere you go to see fags, that shelf is owned by Gallaher, Imperial in the UK. And they didn’t want to see a cigarette called DEATH on the shelf next to their product. So, every time our reps put the cigarettes on the shelf, their army of reps came and took the cigarettes off the shelf.
“We were in serious trouble. At that stage I knew I had to find a way around this distribution block. I heard about a guy from Newcastle upon Tyne who had convinced the local magistrates’ court that the seven and a half tonnes of alcohol he’d brought into the UK was for his personal consumption. As a result, UK tax and duty wasn’t payable because he’d already paid the tax once in France.
“And fags—incidentally, cigarettes—it’s all about tax. 86% of the selling price on the packet of fags is tax. So I started looking at European law and I came up with an idea, which was: what would happen if I acted as agent for UK smokers, purchasing cigarettes on their behalf in another member state of Europe, then again as their agent, arranged for the transport of those cigarettes via DHL to their home address for their personal consumption in the UK? Where would the tax be payable?
“Seventy grand later, senior tax counsel tells me the tax would be payable at the point of purchase for consumption—which I chose to be Luxembourg, because that’s where the European Court of Justice is, and I knew that’s where we’d end up. So, we kicked off this scheme with ‘The Grim Reaper Don’t Come Cheaper’, okay? And it started to go ballistic.
“We grew geometrically. We became DHL’s largest customer in Europe. We were delivering two aircraft full of cigarettes into Stansted every week. We were clearing net profits in excess of one and a half million quid a week. It was such a laugh.
“And then there was a knock on the door. And it was Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise. And I said, ‘Boys, come in, you’re late.’ And they all came in and sat around the table—lovely people, they all smoked. So, I gave them all fags, and we were all having a fag and a cup of tea.
“‘Mr Cunningham, we better get down to business. Are there any cigarettes on this premises which have not had UK tax and duty paid?’
“And I said, ‘Yes, you’re smoking them.’ And they all put out their fags and they took everything.
“I said, ‘You’re acting illegally. I’m a good European citizen.’ They said, ‘You’re nothing more than a common bootlegger.’
“I was thrilled. This gave rise to this massive court case where I was up against every member state of Europe and every major tobacco company.
“In that court case I learned another lesson: if you ask an 18.5-billion-pound question, the answer is no, okay? So, the lead judge in our case was a French judge, and it came back with: ‘Gérard, Mr Cunningham, you are right in law, but the law was never intended for you to be right, and therefore you are wrong.’
“I know that off by heart because it cost me 1.8 million quid in court fees to hear it. So, in any event, we lost that.
“I then developed another—so I was obsessed with tax—I created a cigarette that could break in half. That way, you paid tax on one cigarette, but you got two. The filter was joined in the middle and perforated so you could break it in half. You got two for the price of one. I called them ‘Two-for-One Cigarettes’. Again, big court case.
“In that court case—that was in the UK—I defended myself because I knew I’d lose, having been through the whole charade before. When it came to my turn, I had an apple, a tray and a knife. And I had the apple, the tray, and the knife.
“I said to the judge, ‘How many apples do I have on my tray?’ And the judge said, ‘You have one apple.’ Then I took the knife and cut the apple in half. I said, ‘And now how many apples do I have on my tray?’
“And the judge said, ‘I will not have these theatrics in my courtroom,’ and he threw me out.
“And now, enshrined in UK law, a half plus a half—for tax purposes on tobacco—equals two. That’s the law. I learned another important lesson: everything—everything, even the laws of mathematics—is subject to radical and immediate change.
“So then, the lesson as a businessman—as a business—is have many legs. Make sure your enterprise is flexible so that you can bend with the inevitable change and keep running when they chop a leg off. Because they’re going to. So just be ready. Be ready for the inevitable change that’s coming your way.
“It’s very stoic. My philosophy, because of my business journey, is control what you can, be mindful of what you can, and ignore what you can’t. Be ready for the inevitable catastrophe that’s coming your way.
“For me, life has been one long, slow, fabulous car crash. And it’s been just glorious—the whole journey. And I look forward to continuing it. The things I look back on and love the most are not the successes—it’s been the fabulous failures.
“This is my message to people: fail. Fail gloriously. And enjoy that failure. Because that’s what you’re going to remember. You’re never going to remember the hundred grand you just made—it doesn’t matter. What you’ll remember is the five million that you spent on a court case. That’s what you’ll remember.
“And it doesn’t matter if you’re successful and you sell your business, and you’ve got five million in the bank—the five million in the bank
