Semiotics | Analysis

Sahil 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?

Introduction
The 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 whats
happening through her social networks, shouldnt she spend at least a fraction of her time in
taking care of her health?

The Ad Campaign: Phase 1

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 womans 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 ones 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 the
young, 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.

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 wont hurt you, but breast cancer can, and might kill you (Facebook). {Missing your
friends latest messages isnt the end of the world, but for many women, breast cancer is
(Twitter). Checking your photos for likes isnt 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 in
each of the tweaked logo signifies the need to take care and of ones 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 selfexamination for breast cancer would require very little time, and if one can afford to spend so
much time on the social media, its 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

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 ones weight, hair and pimples and tries
making women realize that these are superficial attributes that do not deserve as much
contention as they think they do. Instead, taking care of ones 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 friends 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 further
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 todays 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 its 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.