Marketing Students' Campaign Aimed at Increasing Organ Donations

Akron, Ohio, April 17, 2008 ― Marketing students at The University of Akron have teamed up with LifeBanc on a statewide campaign called Donate Life Ohio to increase organ donations. LifeBanc is the non-profit organ procurement and tissue recovery agency for Northeast Ohio.

The students, supervised by Dr. Bill Hauser, associate director of UA's Taylor Institute for Direct Marketing, are working with 12 other colleges in Ohio in this major senior class project.

“Our goal is to make members of the UA community and residents of Summit County more aware of the need for organ donations and how easy it is to join the donation registry,” Hauser says.

The students are in Hauser's Direct Interactive Marketing Practicum class. Throughout April, which is organ donation month, and the semester, they have distributed literature, answered questions about organ and tissue donation and dispelled misconceptions.

It's an eye-opener for them, too. “I was very surprised by some of the inaccurate ideas people have about organ donation,” says UA student Corey Linke of Cuyahoga Falls. “Our mission during this project is to change attitudes and perceptions and to show people how easy it is for them to become heroes through organ donation.”

The students' message is delivered at campus events and at the Student Union, Student Recreation and Wellness Center and at selected performances at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall. They have also created MySpace and Facebook pages, and a number of “Be a Hero-Do It Now” public service announcements being aired across campus.

Next up on the program is the Relay for Life, in which campus teams will walk to raise money for the American Cancer Society from 6 p.m. on Friday, April 18 until noon on Saturday, April 19 at Lee Jackson Field, and the Rock the Roo Concert Series on Wednesday, April 30 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at E.J. Thomas Hall.

Among key messages are that the rich and famous don't get transplants sooner than anyone else ― organs are distributed based upon medical information such as blood type, body size and tissue matching through a national computer network operated by the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Others are:

● Donation will not interfere with medical care. Organ, eye and tissue donation become an option only after all life-saving efforts have been made and death has been declared.

● There is no cost to the family or family estate.

● Great care is taken to preserve the natural appearance of the donor following organ recovery.

“This has been a great applied learning exercise,” Hauser says. “The students have learned how to develop and implement a multi-faceted campaign and learned the social responsibility essential to all business endeavors.”

For more information, visit www.DonateLifeOhio.org/akron or www.DonateLifeOhio.org.

Return...