Facebook Bans Sweepstakes for Guns, Gasoline, Drugs…and Cheese

What do milk, cigarettes, underage girls, Belgium, and lengthy tasks have in common? They're all verboten in Facebook contests.

The Center for Consumer Freedom is publicizing this outstanding list of official prohibitions in Facebook's new promotions guidelines:

Section 2. Prohibitions

You may not publicize or administer a promotion on Facebook if:

2.1 The promotion is open or marketed to individuals who are under the age of 18;

2.2 The promotion is open to individuals who reside in a country embargoed by the United States;

2.3 The promotion, if a sweepstakes, is open to individuals residing in Belgium, Norway, Sweden, or India;

2.4 The promotion's objective is to promote any of the following product categories: gambling, tobacco, dairy, firearms, prescription drugs, or gasoline;

2.5 The prize or any part of the prize includes alcohol, tobacco, dairy, firearms, or prescription drugs; or

2.6 The promotion is a sweepstakes that conditions entry upon the purchase of a product, completion of a lengthy task, or other form of consideration.

Before CCF cottoned on, only one other site which seems to have noticed the ban: Green living site Taste Better, which put up a post a month ago titled "Facebook goes (kind of) dairy free":

Facebook has updated their rules about what marketers can promote on the site, along with how they can do it. Wanna know what can't be promoted? Product categories including gambling, tobacco, firearms, prescription drugs, or gasoline. Oh, and dairy. Oh, and if the prizes from your campaign include, wait for it, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, prescription drugs or… dairy.

Now, I don't think this means that everything on Facebook has to be dairy free (for instance, I'd guess that milk chocolate would be allowed but cheese wouldn't) but hey, I could be wrong, and in any case, suck it, dairy board!

I assume the addition of dairy to the list has little to do with an anti-brie bias, and more to do with (ridiculous) restrictions about shipping dairy across state or national borders. But the catalog of banned items strongly resembles my grocery list (alcohol, tobacco, dairy, firearms, prescription drugs, peanut butter), so I'm sad to see it sitting there under the word "Prohibitions"—no matter what the reason.

UPDATE: From the fine folks at Facebook:

"We're all big fans of strong bones at Facebook and we will soon revise our promotions guidelines to lift the complete ban on dairy and simply prohibit giving dairy away as a prize. The rules, which govern the publicizing or administering of sweepstakes, contests, competitions or similar offerings on our platform, initially banned dairy promotions due to individual state laws that impose penalties for distributing dairy at a discounted rate.  We're sorry for the confusion."

Comments

[Invisible Finger]

So no Christmas sausage-and-cheese gift packs.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, originally it was just a ban on the cheesemakers, but the legal department decided that the term's not meant to be taken literally; it now refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.

[VM]

beat me to it.

well challenged.

[Pro Libertate]

I don't think I can even hear the word "dairy" without thinking about that scene.

[VM]

absolutely!

[Mad Max]

Enter our contest today, and you can win an all-expense tour of Belgian dairy farms, courtesy of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Our 16-year-old hostesses will ply you with free cigarettes. Whether you want to engage in any lengthy tasks during your trip depends on your stamina.

[Piltdown Man]

But the catalog of banned items strongly resembles my grocery list (alcohol, tobacco, dairy, firearms, prescription drugs, peanut butter)

I'd move before I going through this

[Pro Libertate]

Actually, I agree--sounds like state law concerns more than anything else.

[Old Mexican]

"Blessed are the cheesemakers"

[Episiarch]

What about ammo? That's worth more than this other stuff at this point anyway.

[The Chad]

No mention of illegal narcotics? So I can still hype my crack giveaway?

[Pro Libertate]

What do Indians have against winning stuff? Same question for the Swedes, Norwegians, and Belgians.

[a]

can I promote soy milk instead?

[hmm]

Take the opposite and you have a business model for an uber version of got a marketing version of woot.

[Hugh Akston]

Burn baby Burn!

[PantsFan]

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be a store and not a government agency.

[Rich]

On, Wisconsin!

[strat]

Looks like we diesel drivers get a free pass!

[alan]

But the catalog of banned items strongly resembles my grocery list (alcohol, tobacco, dairy, firearms, prescription drugs, peanut butter), so I'm sad to see it sitting there under the word "Prohibitions"?no matter what the reason.

You should know by now sexy flirtatious words are wasted on us. We are the kind of losers who are commenting on a blog message board, Friday night at midnight instead of living real lives.

[Will]

As a Wisconsin native and the grandson of a dairy farmer, I take this personally.

I might have to round up Bucky Badger, Donald Driver, Bob Uecker and Ed Thompson and go have a word with these people.

[Carl]

As I sit here thinking about my upcoming trade of a 50BMG rifle for a 2003 Triumph Trophy 1200 and a sweet young milkmaid,good thing it didn't happen on facebook!

[William]

Milk is neither a healthy nor necessary part of the human diet. The Harvard Nurses' Health Study and other studies have shown no link between milk consumption and the prevention of future fractures. In fact, just the opposite was found. Dairy consumption was linked with higher fracture risk. Dairy products contain much cholesterol and fat. Many cancers and Type I diabetes are also linked to dairy consumption.

Animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of pollution and resource depletion. Dairy production pollutes our land and water with feces from cows. In fact, just one dairy cow produces about 120 pounds of manure per day, according to the EPA. Also, the methane produced by the cows contributes to global warming.

Humans are the only species to still drink milk past infancy, and it is not even our own species' milk. To build strong bones, eat fruits and vegetables and get plenty of exercise and sunlight. For more information, visit strongbones.org.

[We're sooooo special...]

Humans are the only species to still drink milk past infancy.

We are also the only species that drinks pop, coffee, tea and alcohol. Woopteefuckingdoo.

Growing up, I heard all kinds of reasons why humans are superior to animals: we have thumbs, we use tools, we are sentient. Over time, each of these characteristics were found in other species. We are finding out that we are much closer to the other animals than previously thought.

The point being: we don't really fucking know if we are the only species that drinks other species milk after childhood.

My kneejerk reaction to this sentence was cats. They drink milk of all kinds from kittenhood to deadhood. But this could be argued that this is because of the near symbiotic relationship cats have with us as a species.

[We're sooooo special...]

Err... that should be opposable thumbs.

[Ray Butlers]

Uh, the point being that dairy is neither needed nor good. The pervasiveness of dairy is the result of industrial desires, not human ones.

[Hazel Meade]

Industrial desires?

I suppose the notion of a milkmaid is a hallucination cooked up by evil robber barons.

And fuck all those greeks and their fucking pre-historic mythos about cows and shit. Everyone knows dead white men just invented the whole Greek mythology thing.

[alan]

Animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of pollution and resource depletion. Dairy production pollutes our land and water with feces from cows. In fact, just one dairy cow produces about 120 pounds of manure per day, according to the EPA. Also, the methane produced by the cows contributes to global warming.

Did you write that for Ms. Fatbottom's fifth grade class?

'Eat carrots and mind your elders, and you will grow up healthy, wealthy and wise!'

Somebody get some beer, whiskey and unfiltered cigarettes in this guy so he can drop that nutsack already.

[az firearms]

Great review.