Designers behind lingerie brand ‘A Summer of Love’ left ‘gobsmacked’ after their Facebook is unpublished

THE designers behind lingerie label A Summer of Love, who had their ads pulled from Facebook last week,have been left “in complete shock” after their whole page was shut down.

Yasmine, left and Lauren, right, are the designers behind lingerie brand A Summer of Love.

THE designers behind lingerie label A Summer of Love, who had their lingerie adverts pulled from Facebook,have been left “in complete shock” after their whole page was shut down overnight.

Yasmine Staub, 27, and her best friend Lauren Carter, were left “angered” and “disappointed” last week after advertisements for their range were removed from Facebook, because the social media network saw the images as “too sexual” and exposing “too much skin”.

“The ad originally went up as part of the verification process, but then we were notified by Facebook that it had been pulled down because it was too sexually explicit,” Ms Staub told news.com.au at the time.

A Summer of Love had their Facebook page unpublished, just days after having their advertising campaign taken down for being too sexual.

But now, things have gotten a whole lot worse for the young designing duo, after their entire public Facebook page was shut down.

Ms Straub and Ms Carter received hundreds of comments of support from people slamming Facebook for its decision to pull their ad, and now believe the social media network has a “vendetta” against their brand.

“I’m completely lost for words,” Ms Staub said.

“I am in complete and utter shock! I’m starting to believe someone at Facebook has a serious vendetta against us.”

Some commenters on the designer’s Facebook site were confused why brands like Victoria’s Secret were able to keep their pages, but A Summer of Love had theirs pulled.

“Facebook are making a lot of money out of Victoria’s Secret so I guess that means the FB censorship rule doesn’t apply to them,” one user said.

“Double standards when Beckham is on a billboard with tiny knickers on,” another said.

This was the image that breached Facebook’s advertising terms and conditions.

Ms Staub, who was born in Perth but moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in modelling and designing, claims she did not receive any warning or reasoning as to why their whole page was unpublished.

She believes the only reason the page could’ve been taken down is because of comments made by some social media users on their public page.

“We were being very proactive and verbal about our ad being taken down — and having active debates about Facebook censorship on our page,” she said.

A Summer of Love has had its Facebook page unpublished. Picture: Facebook

Is this too saucy for your sensibilities? Picture: Facebook

When Ms Staub and Ms Carter tried to access their Facebook page on Wednesday evening, they received a message at the top of the page saying it had been unpublished as the Page didn’t “follow one or more of the Facebook Terms”.

Ms Straub said she followed up with a message to Facebook support, to enquire why their page had been unpublished — and which terms they had breached.

“It was very unexpected and feels to us like revenge, Ms Straub said.

“We were not sent any warning [of our page being unpublished], or any notification about this. “There is no specific instructions on how to dispute the page being shut down, nor any real information about who to contact about this specific issue.

“We’re feeling gobsmacked.”

Yasmine, left and Lauren, right, have been left gobsmacked after their Facebook page was taken down.

The women, who have both modelled previously and are featured in the photographs, said the fact their images were deemed “too sexual” compared to other content that is available on Facebook left them feeling disappointed and outraged.

The pair had hoped to use Facebook as a big part of their launch, but since their series of altercations — they feel the platform is “completely unreliable” as a way of promoting their business.

“It has really changed our relationship and perspective of how we perceive Facebook as an online community where you can share, engage and discuss,” Ms Carter said.

“We never in our wildest dreams imagined that anything we were doing on Facebook would be considered unacceptable for violating the terms.

“We keep thinking that there must be some kind of mistake, but the story keeps getting worse. We have discovered that Facebook is completely unreliable for our business.”

The designers behind A Summer of Love are outraged their ads were pulled from Facebook last week, now their whole page has been unpublished.

According to Facebook’s terms and conditions, “images may not be overly sexual, imply nudity, show excessive amounts of skin or cleavage, or focus unnecessarily on body parts — even if portrayed for artistic or educational reasons.”

Facebook Adverts allow people to create targeted adverts to reach different audiences and meet business goals. With more than 1.4 billion people using Facebook to connect with people right around the world, an advert can be tailored to a select audience, location, age and interest.

The appeal of creating an advert for a small business, such as Ms Staub and Ms Carter’s lingerie brand, means they were hoping to get more people visiting their newly established Facebook page and website.

* As of Friday morning, A Summer of Love had their page reinstated by Facebook.

News.com.au has contacted Facebook for comment.