Italian ad group bans anorexia photo

ROME, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- An Italian advertising industry group has banned ads that feature nude photographs of a young woman with anorexia.

Isabella Caro's emaciated body appeared on billboards and in newspaper advertising at the end of September, the news agency Ansa reported. Oliviero Toscani, a photographer who has caused controversy in the past with a photo of a priest and nun kissing, created the campaign.

Giorgio Floridia, head of the watchdog group IAP, said anorexics had criticized the ads.

"These posters don't help these poor girls, they humiliate them," said Floridia, adding that the organization had received dozens of protest letters from anorexics who felt offended by the campaign.

Caro, a young Frenchwoman who weighed about 70 pounds when the photos were taken, has gone public with an interview on her problems with anorexia in Vanity Fair.

"I've hidden myself and covered myself for too long," she said of the ads. "Now I want to show myself fearlessly, even though I know my body arouses repugnance."