Online media company Unilad is launching an ‘illegal’ blood bank in the UK to highlight laws that prevent sexually active gay or bisexual men from donating blood.
The initiative is part of its new social good campaign ‘The Illegal Blood Bank’.
As it stands, gay or bisexual men must abstain from sex for three months before they can legally donate blood.
It’s an outdated law that is leaving millions of units of blood uncollected, says Unilad.
In a bid to create change, the media company is hosting an ‘illegal’ blood bank at a secret location in London later this month.
The campaign was created by creative agency Elvis and hopes to utilise the publication’s reach of 430 million monthly users.
Qualified professionals will collect and test blood to “help show how effective the individualised risk assessment is at introducing new, safe blood donors into the system”.
“We believe introducing individualised risk assessments and eliminating the three-month deferral period will help reduce discrimination, increase donations from gay and bisexual men and ensure our hospitals receive the quantity and variety of blood they need,” the publication said.
The initiative marks the first such campaign since the company was acquired by rival LADBible last year.
LADBible has previously run social good campaigns targeted to its core demographic of 18- to 34-year-olds around mental health, single-use plastic and endangered animals.
