"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.