Models Direct reviews products, celebrity style and/or advertising campaigns every week and today we’re bringing a global campaign featuring a brilliantly diverse range of models to your attention.

Benetton are known for creating controversial advertisements – back in November the fashion brand raised eyebrows with an image of Pope Benedict XVI kissing a senior Egyptian imam on the lips before they were forced to withdraw it. However, their latest campaign is more thought-provoking than shocking and has certainly proved a winner in the MD offices.

Each of the nine models to feature in the new Benetton ads has been hand-picked for the story they have to tell – from disabled German model Mario Galla to Brazilian transgender model Lea T – Benetton says that they were chosen for their “multi-culturality, cosmopolitan spirit and social commitment” in a “fight against hate and discrimination in all its forms.”

The campaign includes video testimonials from each model alongside images, giving it a more personal touch.

Benetton Group chairman Alessandro Benetton says: “This is an innovation for us, because we have never used testimonials. Now, we are using testimonials that are visible and recognizable to the world of fashion. That is the provocation.

“Our two latest [institutional] campaigns, the ‘Unhate’ campaigns, talked almost to 500 million people. They were very well accepted. I think that we need to take two or three steps backwards and re-establish a real contact with the final consumer, being able to tell him [or] her what Benetton is about,”

We love this video testimonial from 5′ 7” model Charlotte Free:

“It’s number one about color, but we have approached color in so many different ways,” said You Nguyen – Benetton chief merchandising officer and creative director. “Each one of the people we used is unique in their own right, and it’s the community of the nine of them together that makes the campaign strong, because none of them should really be a model in standard fashion language.”

Models Direct are great believers in this promotion of diversity in modelling and wish Benetton the best of luck with the campaign.