Every two seconds someone in America needs blood. Yet the Food and Drug Administration’s newest policy bans gay and bisexual men from donating blood unless they stay celibate for a year. The campaign objective was to raise awareness of this discriminatory ban and end the blood shortage to start saving lives.

The strategy was to show just how ludicrous a forced year of celibacy is. We created “The Celibacy Challenge,” a simple idea to challenge America to face the same restrictions as gay and bisexual men.

We partnered with award-winning actor and author, Alan Cumming, GLAAD and the GMHC and created an online film to launch the campaign. The tongue-in-cheek film instantly spread across the Internet, generating PR buzz through headlines and social media. At the end of the film, viewers were directed to sign a petition to pressure the FDA to change the policy and share that they’d failed The Celibacy Challenge.

We created a controversial line of Celibacy Wear and sent it to top influencers to model for their social media fans.

With zero dollars spent on media, The Celibacy Challenge sparked an ongoing viral conversation to change the FDA’s policy. With every new headline, influencer post and petition signature, we are closer to saving lives by ending discrimination.

The Celibacy Challenge launched with a provocative film starring award-winning actor Alan Cumming to introduce the campaign.

The film was shared through GLAAD’s and the GMHC’s networks and it spread across the Internet. It featured on places like BuzzFeed, Huffington Post and Slate. It was also shared by influencers such as Ricky Martin and George Takei.

After watching the film, viewers signed a petition to pressure the FDA to change the policy. They could then brag that they’d failed The Celibacy Challenge via social media.

We created a line of Celibacy Wear for influencers, including a Victoria’s Secret Angel and Alan Cumming, to model for their social media fans. This was too much for Instagram, which created a PR scandal by deleting Alan’s post.

In just a few short months since launch, without relying on traditional media, The Celibacy Challenge garnered over 219 million impressions, trended on Facebook, increased the awareness of the FDA’s policy by 20%, crashed Change.org, where the petition was being hosted, and did it all with zero dollars spent on media.

But most importantly, with every new headline, influencer post and petition signature, we are closer to saving lives by ending this discrimination.