Published Paper Details:

This paper examines how design communicates social change through a semiotic analysis of five Indian awareness advertisements: the Swachh Bharat Mission logo, a Pulse Polio immunisation poster, Ariel India's #ShareTheLoad campaign, Tata Tea's Jaago Re 2.0 campaign, and the Sadak Suraksha Abhiyaan 2026 road-safety visual. The study uses a qualitative, interpretive framework combining Barthes's levels of denotation, connotation, and myth; Peirce's categories of icon, index, and symbol; and Kress and van Leeuwen's visual grammar. Each advertisement is analysed in relation to imagery, colour, typography, composition, language, gaze, cultural codes, emotional appeal, and call to action. The comparative findings show that Indian social-cause advertising frequently condenses complex public issues into memorable everyday objects: spectacles, vaccine drops, laundry, an alarm clock, and a traffic sign. These objects operate as culturally intelligible signs that translate abstract goals into personal duties. Across the sample, the viewer is positioned not as a passive recipient of information but as a citizen, parent, partner, consumer, or road user who is expected to act. At the same time, the analysis identifies limitations. Messages that emphasise individual responsibility may understate structural barriers, while brand-led activism can blur civic communication and commercial interest. The paper argues that socially responsible design becomes more persuasive and ethically sound when symbolic clarity is joinISSNed with behavioural specificity, inclusive representation, and an acknowledgement of the systems within which individual choices are made.