Commodifying Breast Cancer Awareness: A Hypermodal Study of Selected Pakistani Advocacy Advertisements

Abstract

This article aims to study the linguistic choices of Pakistani breast cancer advocacy advertisements. In Pakistan, the situation of the prevalence of this ailment is worse, and due to such situation, various campaigns are being run with the collaboration of public, and private sectors for the awareness and control of this ailment. In this regard, numerous brands are joining hands with Pink Ribbon Pakistan for raising awareness with the help of advocacy advertisements. This study aims to analyze some of the advocacy advertisements of Pakistan that were published online in October 2020. Using the lens of Hypermodality combined with Systemic Functional Grammar as presented by Halliday, and Visual Grammar given by Kress and Leeuwen, the researcher examines three advertisements to illustrate the way language, and visuals are being utilized by the advertisers. This study aims to articulate how, and why some of these advertisements are ineffective.