1 in 4 of us will depend on donated blood in order to stay alive. Yet millions of pints cannot be collected due to an outdated, discriminatory law that puts a blanket ban on all sexually active gay and bisexual men from donating.

UNILAD’s brand goal is to share brave ideas by shining a light on little known issues. The platform has a broad audience, reaching 60% of Facebook users, with very diverse views. Our brief was to get this audience talking to each other with an idea that championed a fairer, more equal society.

Our objective was to raise awareness of blood donation discrimination in order to increase public pressure for change, with an ultimate goal of changing UK Blood Donation legistlation.

In the UK, any man who has had sex with another man in the past three months is banned from donating blood.

While heterosexual men can have unprotected sex with multiple new partners and still donate, a gay or bisexual man who practises safe sex with a known partner is excluded. This is unfair, and homophobic.

The legislation is a hangover from the HIV crisis in the eighties. Medical advancement in the screening process has reduced UK legislation from an outright ban, to an abstinence period of 12 months, and then three months. But for sexually active men who have sex with men, this still amounts to an outright ban.

We needed a new solution that treated everyone fairly.

There is a general lack of awareness about this controversial and complex legislation. Tackling an issue such as this was the very definition of UNILAD’s brand goal to share brave ideas.

We worked with FreedomToDonate to create a visceral, awareness driving campaign using real human blood donated by gay and bisexual men, that pressurised the government to change the law.

We opened The Illegal Blood Bank: the world’s first blood bank for gay and bisexual men.

In just one day, we collected enough blood to save 78 lives.

We tested the blood to the same medical standards as the UK national health service, and 100% of it was safe to use.

Then we used it to make a statement the government couldn’t ignore. On the first day of work for the UK’s new government, we exhibited the real human blood we collected in bespoke adshels outside parliament and across London. Showing that governments all over the world are ignoring millions of pints of safe, lifesaving blood with legislation based in bias, not science.

Our audience: UNILAD’s broad, mainstream user base, and policy-changers in the UK’s Health Service.

Beyond simply shining a light on the issue, we wanted to bring a solution to the table, so that our awareness driving campaign had a chance to drive real action.

We studied legislation from around the world, to identify which nations had successfully piloted a more equal approach, and how they had done it. This extensive data gathering, along with consultation with blood donation and policy experts, enabled us to uncover a boundary-pushing solution that had massive potential impact.

Individualised risk assessment.

A simple change within the pre-screening process that asks everyone the same questions, regardless of sexual orientation.

Our creative idea acted as proof of concept for our proposed new screening process, in a way that was impactful enough to start a conversation, but also feasible for the UK’s health service to roll out nationally.

The Illegal Blood Bank was a real blood bank, which ran for one day in a secret London location. It acted as a proof-of-concept for the proposed new ‘individualised risk assessment’ questionnaire that screens all donors equally.

Donors were recruited using hard-hitting content across UNILAD’s social channels, encouraging gay and bi men to donate a real pint of their own blood in protest.

Those who couldn’t donate on the day pledged a pint online, and allies to the cause showed their support by signing our Change.org petition and using #BloodWithoutBias across social media.

Then, on the day of the official opening of the country’s new parliament, we displayed the physical pints of real blood around Westminster and across London, in a shocking and sombre guerrilla installation, to make a statement that the government couldn’t ignore.

We raised awareness to increase pressure for change:

· Awareness of ‘blood donation discrimination’: 81% exposed vs 65% control.

· 62% of those who saw our content were ‘Extremely in favour’ of changing the policy, vs 46% control.

We sparked action:

· 5000+ pints pledged.

· The campaign prompted an NHS response, explaining they will investigate ‘individualised risk assessment’. They committed publicly to publishing the outcome in 2020.

We successfully piloted a new, safer screening process for blood donation:

· In one day, utilising ‘individualised risk assessment’, UNILAD collected enough blood to save 78 lives.

· All the blood was deemed 100% safe to use.

We achieved our ultimate goal:

· On 14th December 2020, the UK government changed their policy, in a landmark law change. This groundbreaking individualised risk-based blood donation policy is the most forward-thinking policy for gay and bisexual men in the world.