Constructing Healthiness as a sense effect
A sociocultural semiotic analysis of Naturalness and Lightness on fruit drink packaging from Uruguay
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23310916 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sebastián Moreno-Barreneche (0000-0003-3551-7117, Universidad ORT Uruguay, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 1013-1036 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-24 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Visual Communication (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1470-3572 • E-ISSN: 1741-3214 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14703572261440262 |
| OpenAlex | W7171158185 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 28 |
In order to expand research on how marketing communications influence consumers’ behaviour, this article adopts a sociocultural semiotic perspective focusing on text and social discourse to study fruit drink packages from Uruguay. Analysing the packages of fruit drinks usually referred to as ‘juices’ and fruit-flavoured waters, it demonstrates how producers strategically use visual and verbal semiotic resources expressing the values of Naturalness and Lightness, as these are effective in constructing a sense effect of Healthiness. Examining how visual resources such as figurative imagery of fruits and botanical elements, colours, fonts, shapes and the spatial disposition of design elements, together with verbal resources such as nutrient content claims (NCCs) are used, the analysis shows how an equivalence is established in this discursive genre between the values of Healthiness, Naturalness and Lightness, masking the industrial origin and processing of the products.
Contextualization · Literal and figurative language · Naturalness · Perception · Perspective (graphical) · Semiotics · Social semiotics · Sociocultural evolution · Consumer Packaging Perceptions and Trends · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Sensory Analysis and Statistical Methods
Introduction to the Semiotics of the Text
A Theory of Semiotics
Introduction to Multimodal Analysis
Theory and Methodology of Semiotics
Discourses of ‘Good Food’
The mythologization of protein
Designing food packaging to present healthy and ethical diets to the New Chinese middle classes
Reading packages
On the semiosphere
How does origin labelling on food packaging influence consumer product evaluation and choices? A systematic literature review
Mothers’ perceptions of marketing elements on infant formula packages
Package design and nutritional profile of foods targeted at children in supermarkets in Montevideo, Uruguay
Figurative Semiotics and the Semiotics of the Plastic Arts
| Highly cited | No |
|---|