(Inter)connecting to Lead: Biopolitical Strategies in Organ and Tissue Donation Advertising Campaings

Abstract

Objective to analyze the organ and tissue donation advertising campaigns as biopolitical strategies. Method a qualitative research study inspired on the Post-Structuralist strand of Cultural Studies. Data collection took place between July and September 2020 and the research corpus consisted in the visual and textual components of 421 organ and tissue donation advertising pieces from institutional websites of the Ministry of Health, State Health Secretariats, State Transplantation Centers and the Brazilian Association of Organ Transplantation. The data were managed using the Ethnograph v6 program, submitted to analysis as proposed by Janice Morse and discussed following Michel Foucault's theoretical notions of Biopower and Biopolitics. Results two categories are presented. In the first, the representation of cultural and age diversity in the campaigns was discussed as a way to include all people in the donation and transplantation process; in the second, the use of heroism, altruism and empathy to mobilize the donor's “I” was addressed. Conclusion the inclusion of cultural and age diversity and the use of characteristics such as empathy, altruism and heroism in advertising campaigns are biopolitical strategies used by the Brazilian State to drive the population towards organ donation.