A controversial ad campaign featuring a 68-pound anorexic woman has been launched in Italy to coincide with Milan Fashion Week.

The ads, which are aimed at raising awareness about eating disorders, feature Isabelle Caro, a 27-year-old French woman.

Caro, who has battled the disease for 15 years, shows her exposed breasts and frail, naked body.

Another image shows Caro's buttocks and the outline of her protruding rib cage. Both advertisements feature the slogan: "No Anorexia."

The images, which have been placed in newspapers and on billboards, are being used to advertise Flash & Partners' clothing brand Nolita.

The photographs were shot by controversial Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani. In a 1992 campaign for Benetton, Toscani photographed a man dying of AIDS.

A statement from Flash & Partners said Toscani's aim was "to use that naked body to show everyone the reality of this illness, caused in most cases by the stereotypes imposed by the world of fashion."

The issue was brought to the forefront after the starvation-related deaths of South American models Ana Carolina Reston, 21, and sisters Louisel and Eliana Ramos. All died in the past year.

Last year, super-skinny models were banned from Madrid Fashion Week. The ban covers girls with a body mass index of below 18 -- 18.5 to 25 is considered to be "normal."

In Milan, models must now carry medical certificates to prove they are healthy.

The same prerequisite has been set for models involved in London Fashion Week. The British Fashion Council has also banned models under the age of 16.

Caro, who also suffers from psoriasis, told Vanity Fair magazine she has longed to finally come out of hiding.

"I hid myself and covered myself up for too long," she said in the interview to be published on Wednesday. "Now I want to show myself without fear even though I know my body is repugnant."

Italy's Health Minister Livia Turco said the government supports the campaign and that it would help "promote responsibility towards the problem of anorexia."