The Saw horror film series—and the upcoming eighth installment, Jigsaw, in particular—seems like an odd place to take a stand against restrictive blood donation rules, right? But Lionsgate is giving audiences a little wokeness with its torture porn by launching “All Types Welcome,” a campaign that serve as Jigsaw movie posters while also challenging current FDA regulations preventing gay and bisexual men from donating blood.
A blood donation drive has accompanied all the Saw films going back to the first one in 2004. The campaign for this one features several gay, transgender and bisexual social media stars dressed like nurses, urging people to give blood. These spokespeople, including model Shaun Ross and transgender socialite Amanda Lepore, were chosen because they represent populations that can’t donate blood without forgoing same-sex sexual encounters for at least a year. That ruling is seen as an overcorrection now.
Transgender donors often have to give blood under the gender they were assigned at birth, which has also been criticized in recent years. Ms. Lepore has called these regulations “exclusionary,” as well as “ridiculous” and “discriminatory.”
I’m sure Lionsgate will be accused of capitalizing on outrage culture with this campaign, since chief brand officer Tim Palen is considered one of Hollywood’s savviest marketers. The LGBTQ-specific restrictions on blood donation aren’t common knowledge, though, so this feels less like a cynical play for Twitter activity and more like a genuine attempt to inform.
