Fashion World Divided Over Italian Anorexia Ad

An Italian advertising campaign featuring the naked body of an emaciated girl won praise Tuesday from designers and the government for targeting anorexia, but campaigners warned it could encourage the disease.

The ads for Italian clothing firm "No-l-ita (NSFW link)", which have been published on double-page spreads in the press and are posted on billboards across Italian cities, feature the slogan "No" to anorexia underneath.

But Emilia Costa, the director of a centre for eating disorders in Rome, said the campaign "appears to be using ill people as publicity", according to the ANSA news agency.

Endocrinologist Fabrizio Jacoangeli said it was hard to judge what impact the photos would have but warned the campaign risked creating "competition" among anorexic people to be like the woman in the photograph.

The French actress and anorexia sufferer who modelled for this campaign, Isabelle Caro, said she had wanted to alert young women to the dangers of being too thin.

"Thinness leads to death and it is anything but beautiful," the 27-year-old, who has suffered from anorexia since the age of 13, told RTL radio.

A NSFW picture can be found after the jump.



Source: AFPTags: Nolita | No-l-ita | Ad | Ads | Anorexia | Naked | Isabelle Caro