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Semiotics | AnalysisSahil Avi Kapoor | PGP 1 (B) | 2014 01 21 136

Body Art Campaign by the Breast Cancer Foundation, Singapore

 Are You Obsessed With The Right Things?

IntroductionThe Singapore Breast Cancer Foundation was faced with a challenge to encourage women

to get themselves screened for symptoms of breast cancer. A preliminary research by the

foundation yielded that although 80% women in Singapore were aware of the importance of

screening for breast cancer, only about 41% had actually gone ahead with it.

The Breast Cancer Foundation, along with DDB, worked on two brilliant insights:

1. 

Women spend a lot of time procrastinating and fussing over their appearance and their

body.2.

 

Women spend a large amount of time on social networking websites.

Working around the two aforementioned insights, the ad campaign sought to put forth a

sensational message, “Are women obsessed with rather insignificant and unimportant issues?

Rather than spending so much time worrying about ‘how she looks’ or telling the world ‘what’s

happening’ through her social networks, shouldn’t she spend at least a fraction of her time intaking care of her health?” 

The Ad Campaign: Phase 1

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This phase of the campaign worked around the first insight. It shows graphic representation of

women concerned about a pimple on their face, a bad hair day or a little extra weight

showing on their butts. All these graphics are actually body painted on a woman’s breasts

The ads are accompanied with a subtle tagline, “Are you obsessed with the right things?” and

text that reads, “The only difference between a pimple (a big butt etc.) and breast cancer is

that of life and death.”

The signifiers here, i.e., the spoilt hair, the big butt and the pimple actually signify the inherently

insignificant daily worries of a woman. The Foundation through the tongue in cheek

representation of these signifiers on a pair of breasts, wishes to drive home the message that

breast cancer is not superficial. It compels women to reflect onto the fact that the threat of

cancer is real, and it does deserve much more attention. It also succeeds in pushing across

the fact that health must not be taken for granted.

Moreover, the depiction of the spoilt hair, the big butt and the like, rings through the futility of

spending as much time and thought to things that are trivial, at best. By belittling such an

exercise of giving one’s appearance and body shape so much attention, the ad campaign

beautifully addressed the deeply entrenched concern of body image among young women

in the developed world.

The campaign in the most wonderfully subtle and non-preachy fashion connects with theyoung, metrosexual woman.

The Ad Campaign: Phase 2

The following phase of the awareness campaign addressed the second insight that women

and even young people in general spend way too much time logged onto social networking

websites.

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The campaign tweaked the logos of the three major social networking websites, Facebook,

Twitter and Instagram. The ads were supplemented by another cleverly thought out tagline,

“If only you checked your breasts as often” along with text that read “Not checking status

updates won’t hurt you, but breast cancer can, and might kill you (Facebook). {Missing your

friends’ latest messages isn’t the end of the world, but for many women, breast cancer is

(Twitter). Checking your photos for likes isn’t a matter of life and death, but breast cancer

often is (Instagram).}” The message further goes onto say that in the time a woman spends

online, she can easily do a breast self –  examination test.

The signifiers in this case, that is social networking website logos tweaked to look like breasts,

denote the large amount of time that young women spend online. Moreover, the hand ineach of the tweaked logo signifies the need to take care and of one’s breasts in order to

defeat breast cancer.

But more than the graphics, it is the text that hits hard. However provocative, the threatening

yet subtle writing compels one to stop and reflect. The text beautifully reminds one that self-

examination for breast cancer would require very little time, and if one can afford to spend so

much time on the social media, it’s hardly difficult to spend a tiny bit to take care of oneself.

Connotations

Both the phases of the campaign tend to burn to ashes an inherent belief that taking care of

oneself or being vigilant about the symptoms of a disease such as breast cancer is

cumbersome or requires too much time. Moreover, by citing activities and worries that are so

common to women of all ages, the campaign renders itself especially hard hitting as each

and every woman instantly connects herself with it. In fact because of this forceful relatability

of the campaign, it also successfully shuns the convenient belief of “why would it happen to

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me of all the people” that one nurses, making breast cancer a real disease with a potent

probability of affecting oneself.

Many would ignore that fact that the ad campaign scores a home run when it comes to

addressing extremely relevant issues of body image, addiction to social media, projection of

oneself in virtual communications and the need for acceptance.

The ads subtly talk about the futility of worrying about one’s weight, hair and pimples and triesmaking women realize that these are superficial attributes that do not deserve as much

contention as they think they do. Instead, taking care of one’s health and being alert and

aware with respect to visible symptoms of ill health are issues much more serious and worth

caring for.

On looking closely, the tweaked social networking logos also show breasts being of different

sizes and shapes. While the Facebook logo shows a firm, rounded side image of the breast,

the Twitter logo shows it to be slightly sagging. The images thus, signify the normalcy of having

varied bodily shapes and sizes, none being perfect or more beautiful than the other. This is

doubly important when young women in recent times are known to develop body image

issues that harm them psychologically, mentally as well as socially by lowering their self-esteem

and confidence in oneself. The seriousness of the issue can be understood by the fact that

people known to have a negative body image often treat their body size or shape as a sign

or personal failure and a reason enough to be ashamed and anxious about.

The following phase, addresses the issue of social media and virtual identity encroaching upon

the mind space of young men and women. When the ad talks about the particular urgency

of checking status updates or a friend’s message, it signifies how anxious or concerned we are

increasingly becoming of what others are doing or saying. This, despite the fact that people

are known to project themselves like they actually are not in real life. This gains furthe

consequence when we put it against scientific studies on social media behaviour that show

how young adults are becoming envious about their friends’ lives and increasingly less happy

about their own. The cleverly put together campaign throws another remarkable point across

when it talks about the similar urgency that one feels to check how many Likes one got on his/

her latest photo upload. The inherent problem of looking for self-acceptance through

something as trivial as a virtual stamp of appreciation is not unheard of among today’s young

Finally, the wonderful liberty that the ad makers took while using a full frontal view of bare

breasts on a print ad, albeit covered in body paint, signifies much more than is obvious. Rather

than wanting to make the campaign ‘controversial’ or ‘disruptive’, the bare pair of breasts on

the ad drive home the message that it’s not wise to keep an issue as sensitive as breast cancer

under wraps. In fact, it must be brought forth and discussed on all the suitable public platforms

to spread its awareness far and wide among the masses.