Results: Protect Us From The Sexually Provocative Onion!

When it comes to aphrodisiacs, maybe the lowly onion is now in first place! From April to June 2020, Facebook algorithms removed 35.7 million pieces of content that were in violation of adult nudity and sexual activity policies. Ads for Canada's most sexually provocative onions, the Gaze Seed Company's Walla Walla onion seeds were pulled down from Facebook after the social media giant told the produce company that its images went against advertising guidelines. Facebook admitted the ad was picked up by an errant algorithm, and was restored. Ironically, the controversy surrounding this error made for better publicity than the actual ad could ever have. On its Facebook page, the seed company had fun creating mock-ups of what Facebook thought it was seeing. Can you see how an algorithm could sense that this was a "sexually provocative" image?

Sexualized images used for advertising (and no, the onion is not one of them) is a common attention getting tool, and one that has been used for years. Here's an ad for Love's Baby Soft from 1975. Do you find this ad disturbing?

Do you find this ad, for Sega Genesis in the early 90s disturbing?

Of course, before the onion, it was first the banana. I doubt Chiquita bananas would ever consider running an ad that showed this highly controversial image in this day and age. Do you find this old ad offensive?