Blood donations save lives, but a post-pandemic decline forced the American Red Cross to declare its first blood shortage crisis in over a decade. The situation got so bad that doctors were being forced to decide which patients got blood, and which didn’t.

The ARC urgently needed to drive blood donations among younger first-time donors. So, we turned to pop culture and realized that a lot of perfectly good blood is wasted in horror movies. We also discovered an interesting fact: 50% of Americans love to watch blood spilled in horror movies, but only 3% actually donate it. That got us thinking.

Known for her starring role in one of the most successful horror movie franchises in history, we partnered with Neve Campbell to create a funny PSA that leans into the very predictable ways that horror movie characters tend to die and waste perfectly good blood that could otherwise be donated to save lives.

The PSA compelled people to donate. As a result, reactivated donors increased by 10% and first-time donors increased by 6.2%, providing enough blood donations to help relieve the blood shortage crisis.