D&G's knife-wielding models in bad taste?

In a story that got picked up all over the world overnight, Dolce & Gabbana has courted controversy by running a print ad featuring knife-wielding models. (Sorry our reproduction of the ad isn’t so great, but it’s the only one we could find.) According to this AP story, the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority ruled that D&G "acted irresponsibly and breached standards of good taste in publishing the ads" (Ya think?!) "which showed male models waving knives while surrounded by glamorous women models …” The best part, though, is the unrepentant response by D&G, which said that, although the ads ran globally, only the prudes in Britain complained, and furthermore, the ad was “highly stylized and intended to be an iconic representation of the Napoleonic period of art."