Hard-hitting message in 'beauty ads'

They look like adverts for a new brand of make-up.

One is shown with a black eye, a cut cheek, a scar below her breast or red marks on her shoulder.

With the slogan, 'Gentle skincare for bruising relationships', they seem to be for a product called Cachez.

In fact, the posters - which will be appearing on the Tube in London from today - are for a disturbing new ?50,000 campaign to combat domestic violence .

Amnesty International hopes they will encourage people to be less complacent about violence in the home, which kills two women every week and accounts for more than a fifth of all violent crime.

Cachez is not a real product but the authentic looking images show models smiling incongruously as they displays their injuries. The aim was to portray 'a disturbing world where such violence has been entirely normalised', said Kate Allen, the charity's UK director.

'We are saying, let's wake up to the epidemic of domestic violence.'

A poll last year showed three in ten men think hitting is acceptable in some circumstances.