FCB Health Focuses on Equality in Blood Donations
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FCB Health’s latest campaign Blood Flags is a new pro bono advocacy awareness effort developed in partnership with the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) that aims for true equality in blood donation across the world.
Blood Flags is the next iteration of the Blood Equality campaign and addresses the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) lifetime ban on gay, bisexual and transgender male blood donors, which now requires a 12-month period of celibacy prior to donation. A UCLA Williams Institute study found that lifting the ban could save up to a million lives annually, with an estimated 850,000 pints of blood. Not only does the updated ban exacerbate the growing issue of blood shortage, it infringes on the civil rights of would-be donors. Blood Flags as a creative installation stitches together individual countries’ (those that still uphold discriminatory criteria for blood donation) flags—shaped like blood bags—onto the rainbow pride flag. Ultimately, these flags serve as a call to action to unite these countries in an effort to advance blood equality on a larger scale
