Ellen DeGeneres pokes fun at blatantly photoshopped Target ad

Ellen DeGeneres poked fun at a blatantly photoshopped bathing suit ad from Target on her show Wednesday.

The comedic host referenced the controversial ad in which the model's crotch was cut out to widen the thigh gap and her arms extended to reach down past her knees.

"People are upset because they are portraying an unrealistic body image," DeGeneres said in the video.

DeGeneres gave the model a chance to tell her side of the story and explain just how much of the photo was retouched.

Tanya Marie Keller stepped out on stage wearing plastic arm extensions and proceeded to give DeGeneres long-armed hugs, awkwardly place her "arms" on DeGeneres' chair and even struggle to sip from a coffee mug using the Barbie-like extensions.

When DeGeneres asked if the ad was tampered with, Keller played along. "No photoshop, I do all natural poses," she said.

After the backlash, Target released an apologetic statement.

"In response to your query about the swimsuit image on Target.com, this was an unfortunate error on our part and we apologize. We have removed the image from our Web site," a company spokesman said, according to The Huffington Post. "It was the result of a photo editing error on our part."

The Xhilaration Junior's Midkini 2-Piece Swimsuit in Leopard Print ad was severely criticized not only because critics said it gave women a distorted idea of the perfect body, but because it was aimed at Target's younger female shoppers.

"This is what is being marketed and pushed on young girls. This what young girls have to look at and try to reconcile with their own, normally shaped bodies," Rebecca Rose, who first called attention to the photoshop error, said on Jezebel.