McCann London Challenges Blood Donation Ban

With world blood donor day approaching on June 14th, and a persistent shortage of global blood supplies, McCann London teamed up with the Peter Tatchell Foundation to challenge the blanket ban against sexually active gay and bisexual men donating blood. Together, they launched “Screen the Blood, not the Sexuality.” They created “The Gaydr” - a pseudo “gay detector” device – which was used to scan heterosexual men on their way to a blood bank in central London, in order to make them feel the same sense of exclusion experienced by sexually active gay and bisexual men in many countries. The spoof Gaydr scan informed them that they were actually gay and not allowed to donate blood.

McCann London used hidden cameras to film the scanned men’s reaction to the Gaydr and the current global restrictions.

“People’s reactions to the video, captured on film, range from horror to humor, disbelief to dismay” said Laurence Thomson, Chief Creative Officer and Co-President, McCann London. “The point of the video is to highlight the absurdity of the sweeping restrictions and the generalizations about gay and bisexual men on which they are based.”