There are regular onions, and then there are onions too sexy for Facebook, a recently discovered Canadian gardening and seed shop.
EW Gaze's The Seed Company, in St John's, Newfoundland, wanted to post a seemingly innocent ad for Walla Walla onion seeds on Facebook.
But to their surprise, he was rejected for being "overtly sexual".
In a statement on Wednesday, the social media company apologized for the mistake made by its automated technology.
The Facebook ad featured Walla Walla onions, known for their size and sweet taste, piled up in a wicker basket with some sliced onion on the side.
Store manager Jackson McLean took a moment to realize what the problem was with the posting, he said.
Then she realized that "something about round shapes" could be indicative of breasts or buttocks.
He knew his customers would find rejection of the ad amusing and posted the photo, along with Facebook's automatic warning message "Ads cannot place products or services in a sexually suggestive way", on the company page.
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Mr. McLean said some customers posted potentially suggestive images of carrots and pumpkins in response.
He also appealed the decision to Facebook.
"We use automated technology to keep nudity out of our apps, but sometimes it doesn't recognize a Walla Walla onion from a, well, you know," Meg Sinclair, communications manager for Facebook Canada told the BBC.
"We have reinstated the announcement and we apologize for the company's problems."
The company is digitizing its entire inventory to make online shopping more accessible during the coronavirus pandemic, McLean said, and that included boosting some advertisements, such as onion, on Facebook.
Walla Walla onions, "an older onion variety," were recently returned to stock at the customer's request and are now selling fast thanks to their newfound notoriety, he said.
"We have sold more in the past three days than in the last five years," McLean said, adding that they are now also listed under "sexy onions" on the company's website.
