A billboard for a jewelry store in North Carolina is causing a lot of controversy over its ironic embrace of violent misogyny.MAURO CATEB/Flickr - flic.kr

Spicer Greene in Asheville, North Carolina, is getting backlash after a photo of its ad was posted on Twitter.

"Sometimes, it's ok to throw rocks at girls..." the text of the billboard reads, surrounded by gemstones.

After a local Twitter user (@DivineDisturber) spotted it, she passed it along to @OhNoSheTwitnt, who tweeted it out and received baffled and outraged responses.

Some did not see any problem with the ad. One user asked people to "lighten up":

That take was met with a hearty rebuttal:

The mansplaining continued, however:

Spicer Greene did see the problem, though,and issued two apologies.

One, in tweet form, was not readily accepted:

A longer apology followed on their Facebook page:

"To whom we have offended with our recent billboard, please accept our apologies. We do not condone violence of any kind toward any being. We are humble enough to realize when we make a mistake and humble enough to realize the context in which we are speaking. We did not intend to cause controversy and our billboard communicated something we did not intend. We intended the billboard as a play on words to encourage the loving act of gift giving and are deeply saddened that it offended anyone."

One Facebook user responded, "So when are you taking it down?" Another user explained why exactly their billboard was problematic:

"It's not okay. It's 2017. You do not get to post images of girls dreaming of being proposed to then say you went too far with this one. We don't dream of being proposed to. We buy our own freaking shiny objects. If we love, it's because of love not diamonds. You are so out of touch who Asheville's women are and what we dream of. This billboard is just one in a series of billboards that uses sexism as humor. Of course, sexism escalates to misogyny that then moves into full-blown domestic violence."

Spicer Greene has not commented on if or when the ad will come down. ATTN: reached out for comment but has not heard back.

"Just take it down," one Facebook user wrote. "When you're actually sorry about something, you also try to fix the situation you're sorry about."