Donation Campaigns Research Articles

Blood Donation Program in Malaysia: Government Initiatives towards Attracting Volunteer Blood Donors

Millions of people need blood because of many reasons such as accidents, routine surgeries, treatment of serious diseases such as cancer and thalassemia. In many countries, the availability of blood product depends on a small number of volunteer donors, including Malaysia. Present trends in blood collection and capacity usage in Malaysia have raised concerns about the ability to meet potential needs. To ensure an adequate blood supply in health facilities is a challenging task for the government especially Ministry of Health Malaysia. It is important to develop a program with influential initiatives that can help to boost public interest and willingness to involve in blood donation program. This study aims to identify and examine the initiatives conducted by the government in order to attract the interest of public to become volunteer blood donor. This study identified that there were five main initiatives implemented by the government to attract public to donate blood, namely: (a) intensive advertising (via mainstream television and radio channels); (b) mobile blood transfusion service center; (c) incentives to blood donors; (d) establishments of donation suites, and; (e) collaboration with other government institution for blood donation campaign. Although current situation showed significant changes in terms of public awareness and willingness towards this program, but there are rooms for improvement for the government to consider in maintaining the balance between blood supply and demand in the country. Focusing on public to register, as frequent or repeated volunteer blood donor, is obviously one of the main available option that current situation need to strengthen.

Seroprevalence of cytomegalovirus antibodies positivity among voluntary blood donors in the Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH), Oghara, and its environs in Delta State - Nigeria

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is widely distributed globally and it is found in different geographical and socioeconomic groups. It can be transmitted from person to person via blood transfusion or tissue/organ transplantation and if the receipt is immune-compromised, then a severe infection and mortality can occur.
 Study Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors for Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) among blood donors in DELSUTH and its environs.
 Materials and Methods: This is a randomized cross-sectional study of voluntary blood donors for the purpose of replenishing stock in the blood bank system of the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara-Delta State, Nigeria and also from outreach blood donation centres around DELSUTH during blood donation campaigns. Five millilitres of venous blood was taken from each voluntary blood donor and assayed for CMV IgG and IgM using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.
 Results: A total of 185 voluntary donors were recruited for this study comprising of 162 males and 23 females. The age of the donors ranges from 23 to 62years. Human CMV IgG seroprevalence rate for males is 93% and for the females 91%. Therefore the overall CMV IgG seroprevalence rate is 92%. The CMV IgM seroprevalence rate is zero percent. There is no significant difference between the seroprevalence rates in respect of their gender, age, occupation, level of education and previous history of blood transfusion. (p>0.5)
 Conclusion: The rate of seroprevalence of CMV is high among the studied population and this call for screening of voluntary-donor's blood before transfusion especially to those that are immunocompromised.

Causes of Rejection for Organ Donation by Family of Deceased Donor

The number of notifications received at the Korea Organ Donation Agency (KODA) call center, is increasing every year from 1,126 cases in 2012 to 2,083 in 2016. But more than one fourth of them who were contacted by OPC (organ procurement coordinator) were rejected organ donation of their loved one. So we want to analyze the reasons of the rejection and use it for activation of organ donation campaign. Method Of 8,120 cases reported to KODA from 2012 to 2016, 3,322 cases were provided information about brain death and organ donation using FCTT (Family Communication Tracking Tool). In FCTT, agreement of brain death organ donation and reasons for rejection were recorded. The reasons for rejection were classified into 10 items such as family members’ understanding of brain death, attitude toward organ donation, procedural problems, religious problems, etc. Results Among the total reported cases, the number of families that can be provided information and conducted counseling related to organ donation were 56% in 2012, 52.4% in 2013, 52% in 2014, 46.1% in 2015, and 42.1% in 2016. However, after performing organ donation counseling, 30.5% of donor’s family in 2012, 25.7% in 2013, 26.8% in 2014, 27.9% in 2015 and 28.1% in 2016 rejected organ donation, so we could not proceed organ donation. The frequent reasons for rejecting the donation was 'they could not accept brain death status and want active treatment' in 34.7%, 'disagreement between family members’ in 26.3%, 'ignorance about organ donation' (16.3%) and 'others' (7.5%). Other reasons even a small number were 'they do not want to damage the body of deceased family' (6.9%), 'we don’t know the will of the deceased' (3.9%), 'misunderstanding about brain death and organ donation' (1,4%), 'too complex about organ donation process' (1.3%), 'transfer the body to large hospital' (1.0%), and 'religious reasons’ (0.6%) in that order. Conclusion As seen from the results, many of the family members do not agree with the brain death state, and refuse the consent. This result is caused by present brain death definition in our domestic law. If the brain death is to be recognized as death regardless of organ donation, the donation rate can be expected to increase. In addition, if we respect the consent of next to kin, the number of rejection by disagreement between family members will be far decreasing. In order to effective public campaign and education, we can use these results and can change some of our national donation structure.

Awareness of eye donation among eye health workers

Introductions: To assess the level of awareness and willingness of eye donation among eye health workers and compare it among the two institutes, one with cornea transplant services and other without cornea transplant services. 
 Methods: This was comparative, questionnaire based, cross- sectional study under taken among eye health workers in two institutes. The questionnaire contained questions on demographic details, their awareness on eye donation, reasons for donating and not donating eyes by people as perceived by them, their intention to donate eyes and source of information. The responses were compared and statistically analyzed using chi-square test. 
 Results: Of the 178 participants 132 participants were aware that eye donation was donation of eye after death. The most common source of information about eye donation was from eye professional. It was observed that 107 participants knew that eyes can be donated after death ideally within 6-8 hours of death. 139 respondents believed donated eye gives good sight to blind. Lack of awareness was cited as an important reason for people not donating eyes. 
 Conclusions: Eye health workers are well aware about eye donation they can be actively involved in eye donation campaigns in community level and can act as counselors for eye donors.

A study on knowledge, attitude and practice regarding blood donation in an urban community, Chennai

Background: Blood transfusion plays a vital role in saving the life of those patients requiring transfusion. Assessment of awareness, attitude and practice regarding blood donation will help in creating effective health education strategy to enhance blood donation. Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding blood donation among individuals aged 18-60 years in an urban community of Chennai and to identify the factors associated with blood donation. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in pudupet on the months of May and June, 2017. Table of random numbers was used to recruit a total of 300 study participants. A pilot tested semi structured, questionnaire was employed as a data collection tool. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to examine association between the independent variables and the dependent variables. Results: Among our study subjects, 45% of them had good knowledge on blood donation and 44% of our subjects had a correct attitude towards blood donation. Only 33.3% of them had good practices towards blood donation. The most common reason quoted for not donating blood was that they were more bothered about their own health which by donating blood would lead on to some health problems. Conclusion: The present study shows an average prevalence of knowledge and attitude among the study subjects whereas when it comes to practice it was found to be less. There should be a regularly scheduled awareness creation and voluntary blood donation campaigns organized at the community level.

To what extent do potential conservation donors value community-aspects of conservation projects in low income countries?

There is a major gap in funding required for conservation, especially in low income countries. Given the significant contribution of taxpayers in industrialized countries to funding conservation overseas, and donations from membership organisation, understanding the preferences of ordinary people in a high income country for different attributes of conservation projects is valuable for future marketing of conservation. We conducted a discrete choice experiment with visitors to a UK zoo, while simultaneously conducting a revealed preference study through a real donation campaign on the same sample. Respondents showed the highest willingness to pay for projects that have local community involvement in management (95% confidence interval £9.82 to £15.83), and for improvement in threatened species populations (£2.97 - £13.87). Both of these were significantly larger than the willingness to pay for projects involving provision of alternative livelihoods, or improving the condition of conservation sites. Results of the simultaneous donation campaign showed that respondents were very willing to donate the suggested £1 or above donation (88% made a donation, n = 1798); there was no effect of which of the two campaigns they were exposed to (threatened species management or community involvement in management). The small number of people who did not make a donation had a higher stated willingness to pay within the choice experiment, which may suggest hypothetical bias. Conservationists increasingly argue that conservation should include local communities in management (for both pragmatic and moral reasons). It is heartening that potential conservation donors seem to agree.

Identifying Opinion Leaders to Promote Organ Donation on Social Media: Network Study.

BackgroundIn the recent years, social networking sites (SNSs, also called social media) have been adopted in organ donation campaigns, and recruiting opinion leaders for such campaigns has been found effective in promoting behavioral changes.ObjectiveThe aim of this paper was to focus on the dissemination of organ donation tweets on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, and to examine the opinion leadership in the retweet network of popular organ donation messages using social network analysis. It also aimed to investigate how personal and social attributes contribute to a user’s opinion leadership on the topic of organ donation.MethodsAll messages about organ donation posted on Weibo from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015 were extracted using Python Web crawler. A retweet network with 505,047 nodes and 545,312 edges of the popular messages (n=206) was constructed and analyzed. The local and global opinion leaderships were measured using network metrics, and the roles of personal attributes, professional knowledge, and social positions in obtaining the opinion leadership were examined using general linear model.ResultsThe findings revealed that personal attributes, professional knowledge, and social positions predicted individual’s local opinion leadership in the retweet network of popular organ donation messages. Alternatively, personal attributes and social positions, but not professional knowledge, were significantly associated with global opinion leadership.ConclusionsThe findings of this study indicate that health campaign designers may recruit peer leaders in SNS organ donation promotions to facilitate information sharing among the target audience. Users who are unverified, active, well connected, and experienced with information and communications technology (ICT) will accelerate the sharing of organ donation messages in the global environment. Medical professionals such as organ transplant surgeons who can wield a great amount of influence on their direct connections could also effectively participate in promoting organ donation on social media.

An evaluation of barriers to blood donation from a tertiary care teaching institution

Introduction: The demand for blood transfusion is increasing over time, and we need to cope up with this demand. The aim of this study was to evaluate the perceived barriers to blood donation and to assess any association between the demographic variables with the barriers predicting blood donation. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was carried out for 3 months, i.e., from July to September 2015. All patients who never donated blood were included in this study. Purposive sampling technique was adopted. Study participants were interviewed using a pretested questionnaire. Results: A total of 150 patients were enrolled into the study. The variables that were significant in the univariate model included male gender, age group 25–44 and older, and education more than 10th standard. Perceived barriers to blood donation were fear of needles (29.33%), too inconvenient (28.67%), and fear of collapse after donating blood (24.67%). About 17.33% were of the view that they might contract the disease in the process of blood donation. 17.33% cited a reason for not donating blood as lack of time. Nearly 8% of participants had a fear of seeing blood. Five percent were of the view that blood donation reduces the lifespan. Of the barriers, which negatively predicted blood, donation was fear of pain, fear of seeing blood, fear of anemia, and no access to the blood bank. Conclusion: Based on inputs of this study, community outreach activities such as blood donation campaigns may be initiated to alleviate people's fear of blood donation. Health authorities can utilize this data to tailor the interventions to raise voluntary blood donation rates.

System Level Challenges and Resolutions in Organ Donation and Transplantation Program in Qatar

Introduction: Organ donation and transplantation programs are affected by factors impacting donation decisions of individuals. These factors have been widely researched world over. However, few researches have studied the organ donation system level challenges that jeopardize the system even when prospective donors are available. It is important to understand these challenges and find appropriate resolutions for them. This qualitative study was conducted to understand the challenges and resolutions in the organ donation and transplant system of Qatar. Methodology: Eight focus group discussions were carried out with homogenous groups of health care workers working in the field of organ donation or organ transplantation in Qatar. After consenting, they were asked open ended questions by an unbiased moderator. Each session lasted for 60-90 min and ended with session summary and participant feedback. The question workbooks were prepared after extensive review of literature and discussion with non-participating stake holders of the organ donation and transplant program in Qatar. Discussions were audio recorded, transcribed and later coded and analyzed on Nvivo software. COREQ checklist was used while reporting the results of this study. Results: Underutilization of potential donors, organ donation campaign, brain dead donors, family consenting, living donation, infrastructure, staff training, allocation and recruitment were main system level challenges to resolve to ensure maximum utilization of potential donors and donated organs. Conclusion: Inclusion of multidisciplinary teams during organ transplant, increased representation from departments doing transplants in transplant committee, minimizing wastage of available organs, streamlining the process of brain dead identification, declaration and maintenance of deceased organ, centralized facility for living donor work up and improved infrastructural facility were advocated to improve utilization of donated organs to resolve system level challenges. Improvement in after care and compliance in transplanted patients, registering higher number of donors and increasing family consent by ensuring communication of donation decision to family are the need of the hour.

Perception of Healthcare Workers about Barriers Impacting Organ Donation in Qatar: A Focus Group Study

Objectives: To understand perception of healthcare workers about factors acting as barriers to organ donation and transplantation process in Qatar.Subjects and Methods: A phenomenological approach with the help of focus group discussions was used to fulfill the objectives of the research. Participants were healthcare workers working as volunteers in organ donation campaigns or playing a crucial role in the process of organ donation or transplantation in Qatar. They were selected purposively to participate in the discussions. Open-ended questions were asked during the audio-recorded discussions. Transcripts were coded and assessed using NVivo software. Results were analyzed based on the Theory of Planned Behavior to explore intentions shaping an individual’s donation decision.Results: Lack of awareness and information about the process of organ donation were found to be the root cause barriers for both deceased and living organ donation in Qatar whereas; family, religious and community influences, and an incongruous attitude towards organ donation are the main factors influencing organ donation registration and family consent for deceased donation.Conclusion: Improving awareness and accurate information about organ donation could play significant in increasing deceased and living organ donation in Qatar. However, factors impacting family consent, which was found to be the most prominent reason for gap between availability and utilization of organs, need to be further researched.

The effects of a culturally-tailored campaign to increase blood donation knowledge, attitudes and intentions among African migrants in two Australian States: Victoria and South Australia.

Research suggests that African migrants are often positively predisposed towards blood donation, but are under-represented in participation. A culturally-tailored intervention targeting the African migrant community in Australia was developed and implemented, to enhance knowledge about blood donation, improve attitudes towards donating, increase intentions to donate blood, and increase the number of new African donors in Australia. Four weeks after a targeted campaign, a survey evaluation process commenced, administered face-to-face by bilingual interviewers from the African community in Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia (community survey). The questionnaires covered demographics, campaign awareness, blood donation knowledge and intentions, medical mistrust and perceived discrimination, and were analysed to evaluate changes in knowledge and intention. Sixty-two percent of survey participants (n = 454) reported being aware of the campaign. With increasing campaign awareness, there was a 0.28 increase in knowledge score (p = .005); previous blood donation was also associated with an increased blood donation knowledge score. Blood donation intention scores were not associated with campaign awareness (p = 0.272), but were associated with previous blood donation behaviour and a positive blood donation attitude score. More positive scores on the blood donation attitude measure were associated with increasing blood donation intentions, self-efficacy and campaign awareness (score increases of 0.27, 0.30 and 0.04, respectively, all p<0.05). Data were collected on the ethnicity of new blood donors in six blood collection centres before and after the intervention, and independent of the intervention evaluation survey. These data were also used to assess behavioural changes and the proportions of donors from different countries before and after the survey. There was no difference in the number of new African migrant donors, before and after the intervention. The culturally-relevant marketing campaign was associated with improved blood donation knowledge and attitudes, but there was no short-term change in blood donation intentions or the number of African donors.

Promoting charitable donation campaigns on social media

ABSTRACTIt is salient to investigate how to increase persuasiveness of donation campaign messages communicated on social media. The purpose of this paper is to propose that a construal fit between different message frames (loss/gain framing and desirability/feasibility framing) and donation temporal proximity enhances the persuasiveness of charity donation messages. A convenience sample of 120 adults in Izmir voluntarily participated in this study and participants were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions. This research shows that gain-framed donation-promoting messages paired with desirability-framed messages are more effective on distant-future donation intentions, whereas loss-framed messages paired with feasibility-framed messages are more effective on near-future donation intentions. The findings of this paper are to figure out ways to enable marketers to develop effective Corporate Social Responsibility strategies for telecommunication service companies to encourage consumers’ charitable donations in a social media context.

P210 KIR haplotype and genotype distribution in egyptian unrelated healthy donors

Natural killer (NK) cells are potent immune cells responsible for antitumor and anti-infection immune responses. NK cells are regulated by a balance of interaction of activating and inhibitory receptors mainly killer cell immunoglobulin like receptors (KIR) with their HLA class I ligands on target cells. Within human populations, large variations in the distribution of KIR haplotypes and genotypes are observed. According to Allele frequency.net there are over 200 reports on population studies concerning KIR genes. This study is the first to report KIR genotype and haplotype data in unrelated healthy Egyptian donors for the potential use either in disease association studies, for better understanding of KIR genotypes in Egyptian population and the use of these data in better selection of donors in stem cell transplantation. Fifty Healthy blood donors’ samples were used for this study. blood donors were either donating blood directly into blood bank of National cancer institute or gathered from donation campaigns supervised by Blood bank of National cancer institute. Genomic DNA was extracted and KIR genotypes were determined using SSP methodology and haplotypes were assigned according to KIR gene content. Fourteen KIR genes were studied mainly framework genes (2DL4,3DL2,3DL3) which were found in all samples, KIR 2DL1 gene was found in 100% of subjects. Also, 2DL2, 2DL3, 2DL5, 2DS1, 2DS2, 2DS3, 2DS4, 2DS5, 3DL1 and 3DS1 were genotyped and accordingly KIR AA haplotype was found in 13.5% of subjects and KIR Bx haplotype was found in 86.5% of subjects. This is the first report to describe KIR genotype and haplotype distribution data in healthy unrelated blood donors for further correlation with other populations.

Environmentalism—A Question of Guilt? Testing a Model of Guilt Arousal and Effects for Environmental Campaigns

ABSTRACTGuilt has been identified as a crucial factor mediating the effects of social campaigns. So far, however, knowledge regarding the process of guilt arousal is limited. This paper studies processes of guilt arousal and effects for the context of environmental donation campaigns. Following the extended parallel process model, environmental concern and self-efficacy are introduced as main predictors. Results of an experiment show that guilt arousal enhances campaign effects for those with a high concern but is the wrong strategy to reach those with a low concern. Guilt arousal is not influenced by self-efficacy and occurs independently of emotional message frames.

Current status of cadaver sources in Turkey and a wake-up call for Turkish anatomists.

Persisting difficulties in body procurement in Turkey led to the acquisition of donated, unclaimed, autopsied, and imported bodies regulated under current legislature. Yet, no study had investigated the extent of the on-going cadaver problem. This study was aimed to outline cadaver sources in anatomy departments and their effectiveness by means of an online survey. Additionally, official websites of each department were investigated regarding any information on body donation. Unclaimed cadavers (84.8%) were the major source for anatomy departments, followed by donated (50%) and imported cadavers (39.1%). Foundation-based medical faculties were more likely to import cadavers (P = 0.008). There was a moderate increase (rs = 0.567; P = 0.018) in donation registrations to our department after 2000. The departments in cities with significantly higher City-Based Gross Domestic Product measures (US$9,900 vs. US$16,772, P = 0.041), frequencies for mid- or high-school graduates (30.4% vs. 31.3%, P = 0.041), and frequencies for under- or post-graduates (13.1% vs. 15.8%, P = 0.24) had managed to use donated cadavers. Anatomy departments' major reasons for using unclaimed cadavers were education (45.9%), unclaimed cadavers being the only source (24.3%), and receiving inadequate donations (21.6%). Nine out of seventy-four departments (12.2%) provided information regarding body donation on their websites. Body procurement remains as a serious problem in Turkey and it is apparent that current legislature does not provide a sufficient cadaver inflow. Similarly, anatomy departments' effectiveness in public awareness of body donation and support in the National Body Donation Campaign seems questionable. Anat Sci Educ 11: 155-165. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.

A follow‐up survey of knowledge, attitudes and practices surrounding blood donation in Trinidad and Tobago

Background and objectivesTrinidad and Tobago is a multi‐ethnic, multicultural country with an annual blood donation rate of 17 per 1000 and predominantly (87%) family/replacement (F/R) donors. A knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) community survey in 2003 revealed lack of information and poor access to donation centres as barriers to voluntary non‐remunerated donors (VNRD). The survey was repeated in 2013 after a national intervention to increase VNRD failed.Materials and methodsThe second cross‐sectional, questionnaire‐based survey was administered to 816 adults in the same community. The variables assessed were sociodemographics, knowledge, attitudes and blood donation behaviour. Data analysis was performed using SPSS statistical software and Minitab 17. Chi‐square was used to assign significance and logistic regression to analyse correlation between variables. Results of the two surveys were compared.ResultsThere was no difference in the overall percentage of donors (18·8 vs. 21·1%, P = 0·337), and a low donor percentage was observed in all sociodemographic groups (7·7–31·6% vs. 10·2–31·7%). The main reason for donating blood was replacement for a relative or friend (86·0 vs. 86·9% P = 0·851). Willingness to repeat donation was high (90·6% vs. 86·4%, P = 0·006). Motivators and demotivators to donation varied among sociodemographic groups.ConclusionThere was no significant change in community KAP between surveys. Anthropological studies into blood donation are needed to plan an effective revised and targeted blood donation campaign. Legal and regulatory changes must facilitate VNRD.

African-Americans’ perceptions of organ donation: ‘simply boils down to mistrust!’

ABSTRACTFive focus groups were conducted to better understand African-American adults’ (N = 62) perceptions of organ donation. Applying the health belief model, results revealed that participants generally were aware of the need for organ donors and felt susceptible to needing a transplant in the future. Additionally, the number of perceived barriers greatly outweighed the number of perceived benefits to organ donation. Several novel barriers to organ donation, not currently identified in the literature, arose during focus group discussions, alluding to a larger source of mistrust among African-Americans. In respect to self-efficacy, participants’ responses further delineated the distinction between task and decisional efficacy. The results are discussed with an emphasis on how the current findings compare and contrast with previous work, as well as a focus on the practical implications for targeted organ donation campaigns aimed at African-American communities.

Using body donor demographics to assist the implementation of donation programs in Brazil.

The use of human material in anatomy education depends upon the generosity of body donors. However, little is known regarding the demographics of body donors in Brazil, where voluntary body donation is a relatively rare phenomenon. Hence, the aim of the present study was to elucidate the demographic profile of applicants to the Body Donation Program (BDP) at the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre in Brazil, as well as to assess whether the observed characteristics of body donors are unique to that sample, or if they merely reflect the characteristics of the regional population. Information derived from the specific forms filled out by donors between January 2008 and June 2016 at the time of registration were collected. Data from 416 forms were analyzed. Based on this study, the typical applicant in Brazil is typically a white female (67.4%), over 60 years of age (60.3%), unmarried or single (70.6%), affiliated with a religious group (89.1%), of middle class background (40.4%), who has completed high school and/or holds a university degree (93.8%). The motivation of donors was, in most cases, an altruistic gesture, represented by the desire to help society and science. Elucidating these demographic characteristics of potential donors may help identify the target public to which information regarding body donation campaigns could be directed. Anat Sci Educ 10: 475-486. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.

Changing Contexts for Reputation Management

This note surveys some of the shifting considerations in play as chief communications officers (CCOs) have come to see reputation as a useful umbrella concept for managing the many activities that form perceptions of their large organizations. Primary among these is the alignment of internal and external communications to achieve a coherent and consistent message. Excerpt UVA-BC-0249 Rev. Apr. 7, 2014 CHANGING CONTEXTS FOR Reputation MANAGEMENT In a letter to his son, Lord Chesterfield once advised that “the possession of all the moral virtues…is not sufficient…you must have the reputation of them also.” For corporate philanthropy as a means of good will, a corollary of this sentiment might be “Do good—and find a way to let others know about it.” As recently as 20 years ago, charitable giving, through company-sponsored foundations or employee donation campaigns, was perhaps the most direct, measurable way to influence a company's reputation. Reputation management as we know it—as a sort of cottage industry—got its start in the optimistic 1990s, as the first Reagan recession began to recede but before the dot-com bubble burst, with Charles Fombrun's groundbreaking book, Reputation. Soon after, Harris Interactive, the PR firm, began offering its reputation quotient; if companies were unsure of this intangible asset, common wisdom was that you dare not allow competitors to gain advantage in a new arena. These developments coincided with the increased promotion of annual rankings (most admired, best managed, best to work for, best for the environment) by business magazines—U.S. News & World Report initially, then Fortune in particular. As had venerable universities under similar scrutiny, corporations initially saw such rankings as stunts to sell magazines, only to turn around and dedicate resources to managing for the polls. The polls themselves have tended to be based on proprietary algorithms weighted, sometimes in unexpected ways, in several categories. As did college rankings, corporate rankings proliferated to other well-known publications. Unlike brand, reputation had no direct association with marketing nor any other business function. . . .

"DO YOU NEED TO KNOW THE PERSON TO DONATE?" FACEWORK STRATEGIES IN BRAZILIAN BLOOD DONATIONCAMPAIGNS: A MULTIMODAL ANALYSIS

Abstract The study intends to point out the analytic potential which the interrelation be tween the Politeness Theory (BROWN; LEVINSON, 1987) and the semiotic approach of the Grammar of Visual Design (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2006) can provide to the analy sis of politeness strategies used in the advertising of public communication. We carried out a qualitative analysis of two advertising pieces in blood donation campaigns conducted by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The textual genres analyzed, a poster and a folder, are character ized by their semiotic multimodality; therefore, resources are used to gether to produce social meanings in tune with the interests and motivations of the producers. It was highlighted by the data analysis that, as the positive politeness strategies are used by the advertisers to try to get close to the addressees, the visual language is also handled according to certain standards, in order to capture the attention of the tar geted public. The corpus suggests that the visual structures reinforce the verbal strategies used to intensify the atmosphere of closeness between those involved in the interaction situation.