Ad campaign draws attention to anorexia

Pictures of an anorexic woman have stopped traffic in Italy.

The posters have been released to coincide with Milan Fashion Week and they show a pale and gaunt woman with the message 'no anorexia' written across the images.

The model shown is Isabelle Caro, a French woman who has suffered from anorexia for 15 years and weighs just over four and a half stones.

The photographer Giuseppina Revilli built a reputation for controversy in the 1990s by taking a famous picture for Bennetton of a man dying of Aids.

Some anorexia groups have deemed the shock tactics as being too crude but the poster has been backed by the Ministry of Health, who said the campaign shows the reality of an illness that can be caused by stereotypes imposed by the world of fashion.

One onlooker said: "It frightened me at first but I think it's positive this person with this problem can make herself useful against the illness."

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