A Wellington pie maker is bewildered after his Facebook page was removed for advertising 'adult content', because of an unassuming but apparently sexy shepherd's pie.
Niels Reinsborg began his pie business, Crafty Pies, at the beginning of the year. When the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to his plan to supply local cafes, he instead set up a website offering non-contact delivery, purchasing Facebook advertising to promote the new business.
Reinsborg says sales took off and soon he was selling several hundred pies a week. But it all changed when the Crafty Pies team tried to upload a photo of their 'Cypriot Shepard's Pie' two weeks into business.
Facebook immediately rejected the photograph of the pie, saying it didn't allow the promotion of adult items or services on its sites. It then closed the Crafty Pies advertising account.
According to screenshots, the pie is made from lean lamb cooked with fresh ginger cumin and cinnamon, served in parmesan and black pepper pastry with a mashed carrot and parsnip topping.
"While it's a very cute pie, I don't think its too objectively arousing for the general public," says Reinsborg.
He told Newshub it's a fairly devastating measure, as 80 percent of his business comes from Facebook advertising.
"So we're having the repeat customers but not the new business," he explained.
"I don't know how you could look at it and think it was anything but a pie!"
Crafty Pies is still awaiting a reply to either one of its two appeals to Facebook about the decision to close its account.
