Aoki Lee Simmons Poses for New PETA Marketing campaign After Saying She Was Taking a Step Again from Modeling

• Aoki Lee Simmons posed for a brand new PETA marketing campaign urging individuals to not go to SeaWorld
• Within the advertisements, Simmons poses as a mermaid in a fishbowl to emulate how the ocean animals at SeaWorld really feel in captivity
• The brand new marketing campaign marks considered one of Simmons’ main advertisements since saying in October 2024 that she could be “wrapping up” her modeling profession as a result of toll it had taken on her

Though Aoki Lee Simmons stated she was taking a step again from modeling, she’s posing for a objective.

In an unique first look, Simmons, 22, is noticed supporting PETA to induce individuals to not go to SeaWorld. Within the marketing campaign, Simmons is photographed as a mermaid of types confined to a fish bowl, as she stares immediately on the digital camera. 

“Think about a lifetime in a fishbowl,” the marketing campaign slogan reads. 

Together with the pointed marketing campaign photograph, Simmons was additionally featured in a video documenting the behind-the-scenes of the photograph shoot and why this marketing campaign grabbed her consideration.

“Standing in a closet for like eight hours. Think about residing like that. It is actually to them, like, no house. It is like hell on Earth, residing that manner,” Simmons says initially of the video, referring to the ocean life at SeaWorld. She provides, “Think about your self residing that manner, it’s going to click on for you. You wouldn’t wish to stay in a fishbowl.”

“I bear in mind after I was younger and I first discovered the situation of orcas and dolphins and all of these animals in captivity that you’d see at SeaWorld exhibits, and it was horrifying,” she continues. “Do not go to SeaWorld. There may be nothing about making an animal do a trick in a pool that is going to show your youngsters something about nature, the Earth or animal exercise.”

PETA stated that over 40 orcas and greater than 500 different dolphins and whales have died, “many prematurely,” at SeaWorld. 

PETA’s new marketing campaign additionally urges SeaWorld to launch orca whale Corky, the longest-held captive orca on the planet. Corky was captured off the coast of British Columbia in 1969. 

By no means miss a narrative — join PEOPLE’s free each day e-newsletter to remain up-to-date on the most effective of what PEOPLE has to supply​​, from celeb information to forcing human curiosity tales.

“Corky was used for years as a breeding machine at one other facility, however none of her calves survived previous 47 days. Her final being pregnant led to a miscarriage when her lifeless child was discovered on the backside of a concrete tank at SeaWorld,” a press launch reads. “Of the 13 members of her pod who had been captured between 1968 and 1969, Corky is the one one nonetheless alive.”

Simmons compares Corky’s captivity to an individual “standing in a closet eternally.” Noting, “There is a clear impact on their psychological well being, their wellness, their total lifespan, all of it.”

The significant marketing campaign, nevertheless, drove Simmons to “return” to modeling (although she hasn’t truly stopped modeling) after saying in October 2024 that she could be “wrapping up” her profession within the trade as a result of it had taken a toll on her.

“It’s laborious to go someplace and get instructed again and again and over, ‘No, [and] you’re not fairly sufficient,’ ” she stated in an Instagram Dwell. She added that being the daughter of Kimora Lee Simmons additionally made her work more durable due to the comparisons. Simmons famous that in castings, particularly for manufacturers her mother had beforehand labored with, it typically felt “like one large fats comparability,” which may very well be “annoying.”

Regardless of her Instagram Dwell assertion on the time, nevertheless, Simmons has continued to work within the months since, together with this PETA marketing campaign.