King Cakes Banned from Facebook...well kinda
Imagine if you will…you’ve been in the kitchen (all day) working on orders, and you decide that now would be the perfect time to start promoting your seasonal King Cakes in honor of Mardi Gras.
You post a King Cake picture on your Facebook page featuring the traditional naked baby, you boost your post to reach more local customers, and you go on about your day.
Then, a few hours later you get a notification rejecting your ad due to “excessive skin and nudity.” Ha! What!?!
You feel like surely this must be a joke!?! How could Facebook (the company that is notorious for letting TONS of graphic images go un-ckeched on its platform) really find a picture of a naked plastic baby offensive??
So, you file a request for review, because clearly this must be a mistake. However, after your request is confirmed as denied, you realize that this not a drill or a joke! Facebook has officially refused to promote your post. Well…dang!
Yeah, so…that’s not a made up story! This really happened to a Facebook Page called King Cake Snob, a page & website that serves as a forum for King Cake lovers to pass on their feedback on restaurants that provide (you guessed it) King Cakes!
I have SO many thoughts on this situation that it’s kind of hard for me to figure out where to begin. Lol…so let’s start with King Cake Snob.
First, I love that there is a website that is completely devoted to reviewing king cakes. It feels like my type of party! If I lived in Louisiana, I’d be all over that site using it as my treasure map to the Best King Cakes in the state.
After doing some digging, I found out that this site is actually run by Innovative Advertising, a Mandeville Louisiana based marketing company. I also discovered that the site doubles as a survey tool.
Apparently not only does the website, name the “Top King Cakes” in Louisiana, but they also use “voter questionnaires to reveal Louisianans preferences in filling types, how often they consume King Cakes during the Carnival season, Mardi Gras attire and much more.”
King Cake Snob also sells Mardi Gras themed t-shirts and donates the proceeds to the “Second Harvest Food bank to feed the hungry in south Louisiana.” In 2018, they reportedly raised $1,400 for the organization. Now, that’s pretty cool!
Secondly…I love how King Cake Snob used this situation to their advantage to help build even more brand awareness. After having their ad request denied, the company took to Facebook with a post that mocked the ridiculous ad rejection.
It said, “BREAKING NEWS: Facebook wants to ban you from looking at a King Cake baby! They denied our ad because of excessive plastic King Cake baby nudity.” They went on to say how the folks at Facebook probably could use a “little more Mardi Gras in their lives”. To date, the post has been shared 417 times! Ha…take that Facebook!
My final thought is that this should serve as a fair warning (and heads up) to those of you making or promoting King Cakes on Facebook this season. Maybe keep the plastic baby nudity to a PG-13 level, because Facebook is out here rejecting posts over stuff that we’ve been familiar with since the toy box at daycare.
Come on Facebook…chill and let the good times roll a little bit!
UPDATE Jan 18, 2019: According to the Official King Cake Snob Facebook page, Facebook reversed its decision to ban the original boosted post on the social media platform. King Cake Snob posted an announcement saying, "Your voices have been heard! Facebook has reversed its decision to deny our King Cake baby ads, allowing the plastic babies to appear in paid content. Thanks to everyone who helped spread the word about this crazy story. The King Cake baby has been freed!" I guess that goes to show what can happen when we all pull together.
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