In a new ad campaign to promote Jigsaw, the Saw sequel nobody saw (sorry not sorry) coming, Lionsgate threw its money and weight into highlighting a longstanding issue with healthcare. In addition to advocating for blood donations (because they're a horror movie, duh), they also aim to highlight how people in the LGBTQ community have been barred from donating blood, even in times of crisis.

Adweek first reported on the ad campaign — titled "All Types Welcome" — which sets prominent LGBTQ stars front and center. According to Adweek, these include model Shaun Ross and socialite Amanda Lepore. Ross, who made news as the first professional black model who has albinism, and Lepore, who identifies as trans, are both blocked from donating blood due to the FDA's currently horrendously outdated regulations. Lepore commented on the regulations to the New York Times, saying, "It's exclusion, and it's ridiculous, and it's discriminatory."

Currently, the regulations say that men who have sex with men must "[defer] for 12 months from the most recent sexual contact, a man who has had sex with another man during the past 12 months." In other words, if you want to be eligible to donate blood, they ask that you not have sex with another man for 12 months — kind of a wildly unreasonable ask, surely, though it's an itty, bitty, tiny step up from the lifetime deferral that you'd get saddled with before.

Trans patients were previously forced to list their gender identity as the gender they were assigned at birth. Recent updates to the policy have change that, but things are still a little more complicated if you happen to identify as someone who lives outside of the gender binary (i.e., non-binary, gender non-conforming, etc.). In that case, you still have to list a "male" or "female" gender.

Lionsgate's ad could very well come off as a bit crass and perhaps a hard attention grab, but truth be told, it feels a bit like a genuine attempt at informing people about this policy that has remained uncontested by general public opinion for quite some time now. Back in 2016, CNN said that the FDA put out a call for public comment on how they should proceed with updating their policies, but there's still so, so much work to do. That's what this ad campaign seems to be trying to get across, and if it plugs a movie at the same time, then that seems fine, too, I think. It's also worth noting that as part of the campaign, if you donate blood at one of their "Mobile Jigsaw Blood Drive" sites, you get a free ticket to see Jigsaw.

To see all the posters involved in the campaign, head on over to Lionsgate Publicity's website for Jigsaw.

Related: Blood Drive For Gay Men Aims To End Decades-Long Gay Blood Stigma

Photo by Lionsgate Publicity