Sarah Cooper, director of Rock Your Bump Maternity Clothing. Photo / Greg Bowker
Sarah Cooper, director of Rock Your Bump Maternity Clothing. Photo / Greg Bowker
Facebook says its rejection of an advertisement for maternity and breastfeeding dresses was because the text made an assumption that people receiving it were pregnant.
It indicated yesterday that its objection to the advert, submitted by Auckland mother-and-daughter firm Rock Your Bump, was not because of any objection to thewords "pregnancy" or "breastfeeding."
An Australian spokeswoman said the phrase "your pregnancy" made an assumption about the personal circumstances of potential recipients of the advertisement, in breach of Facebook policy.
"Our global advertising policies prohibit ads on Facebook from referencing personal details about who is receiving the ad, including the possibility of that person being pregnant. We prevented this ad from appearing on Facebook because their copy included the phrase 'your pregnancy', referring to the recipient of the ad."
The spokeswoman said Facebook acknowledged it did not clearly communicate to Rock Your Bump, owners Sarah Cooper and her mother Lesley why their advertisement was blocked.
But Ms Cooper, who is an expectant mother, said she still believed the advert's suppression was ridiculous given that most of her firm's 21,000 Facebook page followers were likely to be either pregnant or mothers of young babies being breastfed.
"We are a maternity and breastfeeding online clothing store," she said.
"Of course if I'm buying it [the dress], I'm buying it for my pregnancy journey or someone who is pregnant - I am not buying it so my husband can breastfeed."
Ms Cooper said there was some inconsistency in the way Facebook applied its policy, because she said it had agreed on Monday night to lift a block it had placed on a second advertisement, for another dress, which also referred to "your pregnancy".
"I asked why it had been blocked and they said sorry, it had been incorrectly done, and they released the advert."
