Peddling a semiotics of fear: a critical examination of scare tactics and commercial strategies in public health promotion

Brookes, Gavin; Harvey, Kevin

Abstract

This study critically examines the ways in which the nationwide Diabetes UK/Tesco public health promotion campaign (2013-2014) sought to raise awareness of Type 2 diabetes. Conducting a multimodal critical discourse analysis of six campaign images, we identify the presence of fear-inducing, stigmatising and commercial strategies, through which the campaign emphasises the dangers of diabetes and advocates personal responsibility for assessing both individual and others’ risk of the disease. Specifically, three discursive techniques are deployed in this campaign to achieve these ends: (1) the depiction of grief and amplification of diabetes-related danger, (2) the promotion of diabetes risk and responsibilization of individuals for their health, and (3) the commercial branding and framing of the Diabetes UK/Tesco partnership as providing tools for diabetes prevention and management. Our findings raise concerns about the moral legitimacy of using fear-inducing and commercial strategies in public health campaigns, strategies which do little to address the environmental factors which are associated with increasing rates of the disease.

Citation

Brookes, G., & Harvey, K. (2015). Peddling a semiotics of fear: a critical examination of scare tactics and commercial strategies in public health promotion. Social Semiotics, 25(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2014.988920

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Dec 13, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Apr 4, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 4, 2016
• Journal: Social Semiotics
• Print ISSN: 1035-0330
• Electronic ISSN: 1470-1219
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 1
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2014.988920
• Keywords: commercialisation of health, diabetes, health promotion, fear and risk, neoliberalism, critical multimodal discourse analysis
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/740137
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10350330.2014.988920
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Social Semiotics on 2015 (online 13 Dec 2014), available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10350330.2014.988920