Understanding the Interplay of Signifiers and the Signified(s): A Semiotic Analysis of Anti-Obesity Ad Images

According to WHO's fact sheet, worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980 and it is also researched that overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight. The data and facts related to obesity are alarming worldwide and efforts towards generating awareness about the ill effects of obesity are on the rise. The anti-obesity posters, advertisements, images, etc., are loaded with visual cues (such as signs, images, colours and so on) to captivate viewer's thoughts and communicate the message in the most appealing manner. It is interesting to observe what they contain and how effectively they suggest the pernicious consequences of obesity on adults and children. The paper analyses these visual cues and examines them for their impact on the psyche of the viewer. The methodology of this research is semiotic analysis, which has provided the tools here for analyzing selected images available online, containing anti-obesity text messages with conspicuous illustrations.