The campaign, which launched on 14 August, showcased the various "Shoga" poses women have to hold to achieve a successful shave.
While the model does indeed appear nude, the "bits are covered", said Briar Keen, the co-founder and chief marketing officer of FFS.
According to Keen the start-up has appealed the decision but Facebook will not relent. So the campaign will have to be disseminated organically with no spend behind it.
"Our ad highlights the daily realities of women’s shaving in a fun way. We purposefully used a real woman, shaving naked as women do (although with her modesty covered) in a typical bathroom to achieve this," Keen said. "We don’t think that a woman shaving is anything to be ashamed of and find it sexist and deeply offensive that Facebook have banned our ad on these grounds.
"We know a lot of women will agree with us, so we’re calling on them to support us by watching our video in full at ffs.co.uk and sharing our story on their social media channels."
FFS have put together an ad to explain the ban to their subscribers (see above).
A Facebook spokesperson said that the platform's advertising policies aim to strike a balance between allowing businesses and organisations to show ads that are of interest and value to people, while also making sure our global community feels comfortable.
"As a result, there are occasions where we work with our partners before their ads appear on the platform. In this instance, the ad was initially rejected for containing implied nudity. We are working with the advertiser to find a solution that is compliant with our advertising policies," the spokesperson said.
However, when contacted for a response FFS' Keen said Facebook had not been in touch with the company for awhile.
"We haven’t had any contact with FB about this in weeks, so for them to claim that they are still working with us on this is totally disingenuous," Keen said. "The ads were flat out rejected. We did look at options like refilming it but as a small company, we just couldn’t afford to do that."
View the original ad below:
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