ISBN 0 7559 1168 7 (Web only publication)
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Campaign overview
- The Scottish Executive launched its first organ donation campaign in February 2004.
- The campaign aimed to encourage people to discuss their wishes regarding organ donation with their family.
- The campaign, which ran 16 th February - 7 th March, comprised national press and local radio advertising, as well as advertising on milk cartons.
- Research was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign in meeting this aim, and to explore the attitudes of Scotland's population towards organ donation.
- This research was carried out in two waves. Wave 1 was undertaken before advertising from 2 nd - 4 th February 2004, and Wave 2 was conducted post-advertising from 25 th March - 1 st April 2004.
Highlights
- Following the advertising, there was an increase from 88% to 92% in the number of people agreeing with the statement Everyone should discuss their wishes on organ donation with their next of kin. This is a key message of the campaign and suggests that it has been successfully communicated.
- 41% of people stated that they were aware of the advertising at Wave 2.
Implications
Given that this is the first advertising that the Executive has undertaken on this subject, and, that it was a fairly low level campaign, a significant level of awareness would not be expected.
However, the significant increase in visits to the Organ Donor website, which was promoted in the advertising and editorial, would suggest that although people may not recall the advertising, they have acted upon it. A total of 1816 visits were made in January - March, and 936 in April - June 2004, compared with 221 in October - December 2003, prior to the campaign.
It should also be noted that the advertising activity took place following significant media coverage of organ retention issues at Alder Hey, which may have had an influence on attitudes towards organ donation among those who had seen the news reports.