While most fashion brands use sexy models to sell their clothes, Benetton Group's Benetton USA Corp. is known for its not-so-pretty, controversial advertising that depicts the likes of a frail man with AIDS and death row inmates.

Benetton created this ad with two twenty-something men wearing pastel shirts in a cheek-to-cheek embrace that left many wondering if the two were a couple. The ad appeared on billboards and in OUT magazine but the company said they were not supposed to be seen as gay, that they were in fact twins.

What a difference a decade makes. Now, Benetton is willing to be more upfront about its purpose with those ads. "We were vague about all that," says Benetton spokesman Mark Major. "If you provide your intentions, it might affect what people see and we want to challenge people to think."

Though the company has toyed with gay vague imagery before, Benetton has never directly dealt with gay themes – until it introduced its Sisley brand, with one envelope-pushing ad that looks something like the beginning of a gay porn movie.

Despite the fashion industry's omnipresent use of sex to sell its merchandise – often "forgetting" to include the very clothing they're trying to sell – few have actually used overtly gay imagery. Designers including Calvin Klein, Gucci, Versace, Abercrombie & Fitch and even Benetton itself have only teased consumers with gay vague imagery.

The company also ran a TV ad in 1995 with openly lesbian model Jenny Shimizu, with tattoos and short hair. She talks about the dress "that you love more than your boyfriend – but let's not get started on that."

As Major explains, Benetton's ad director Oliviero Toscani likes to challenge consumers with his advertising. "His agenda is to push people's thinking. He feels the way sex is a taboo subject in the US is hypocritical and that we're our own worst enemy. Why do we tell children babies come from a stork?"