New ad campaign is hard core

The eyes stare up, dazed and tired. To her right is a cow's teat. The model is holding it in her hand, spraying milk into her open mouth. Her tongue is hanging out, and liquid drips from it onto her chin.

You can't really see what she is wearing. You'd hardly know it was an ad for a clothes store. You would, however, notice pretty soon that Sisley's latest campaign, with its obvious references to hard-core pornography, is the type designed to whip up outrage. And publicity. (And yes, we know that we are providing exactly that here.) The milking scene is just one of many images of models cavorting in a farmyard.

If the ads are redolent of Benetton's deliberate shock tactics, that's for a good reason, for it is Sisley's parent company. The campaign, entitled Farming, was created in Italy, shot by photographer Terry Richardson on a farm in Kentucky, and is appearing across Europe. Here it is being published in fashion and style magazines - Vogue, Elle, and i-D among others - with sophisticated audiences. But the window of Sisley's store in Kensington High Street features an 8ft high image of the model and her lactating farmyard friend.

The campaign features "a naturalistic representation of life and countryside, playing on models' exhibitionism, and hinting ironically at nature and natural eroticism", according to Sisley. "Fresh milk smeared on a girl's lips and the playful contrasts with cows, horses and pigs make the photo shoot funny, and communicate the amusement the high-spirited crew had."

The Advertising Standards Authority has yet to receive a complaint. Perhaps that is because the red tops, still rightly concerned with the war on terror, have yet to notice the adverts. How long will it be?