From Awareness to Moral Redemption: Medicalisation, Stigma, and Anti-Establishment Aesthetics in the ‘Obesity Without Filters’ Spanish Campaign by Pharmaceutical Company Novo Nordisk

Abstract

This article examines how 'obesity' is discursively and narratively constructed in Novo Nordisk's 'Obesity Without Filters' campaign. Drawing on the premise that awareness campaigns function as ideological texts, it explores how discourses of empathy, moral responsibility, and biomedical authority shape public understandings of body weight - with particular attention to how such campaigns operate beyond Anglophone contexts, and how the further medicalisation of body weight may ultimately run counter to anti-stigma efforts. Using qualitative content analysis informed by framing theory, conceptual metaphor, and Greimasian narrative semiotics, the study examines a social media video, two outdoor posters, and a website. The findings reveal a paradoxical narrative: while adopting an anti-establishment aesthetic and a rhetoric of authenticity, the campaign reproduces hegemonic frameworks in which 'obesity' is framed as a disease, science as the sole epistemological authority, and individuals as morally responsible for correcting their bodies. Rather than reducing weight stigma, the campaign reinforces medicalisation and neoliberal regimes of bodily governance. Beyond the empirical findings, the study further offers a replicable analytical framework for examining discursive mechanisms in health communication campaigns, applicable beyond anti-obesity contexts. By dismantling the narrative devices through which stigmatising ideas are naturalised, this work opens avenues for counter-discourses - aligning with broader calls for critical scrutiny of public health campaigns and genuine reflexivity regarding the messages they express.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Qualitative Health Research, 2026 · DOI ↗