As if a massive data breach was not enough, Target issued yet another apology to the public. This time it was for pictures of models on its website with body parts cropped out.
In what is being dubbed an epic Photoshop fail, models in bathing suits had sections of their crotch, thighs and arms cut out of the pictures on Target's website. Social media exploded with comments slamming the retailer for being so careless.
"Hey @Target how about you check your Photoshop before putting online...clearly this is wrong," one customer tweeted, the New York Daily News reported.
One picture, the "Xhilaration Junior's Hipster Swim Bottom" in bird print, looks as if someone took a pair of scissors and cut out part of the model's behind. Another picture, the "Xhilaration Junior's Midkini 2-Piece Swimsuit" in leopard print, shows a model in a bikini with impossibly slim arms and some of her crotch missing.
"It's so clearly been altered," Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center, told NBC's "Today."
"They removed, actually, part of her body- part of her crotch, not just part of her legs," Rutledge said.
The Photoshop disaster was first pointed out on Monday by the blog Ethical Adam, which covers social issues in the media.
"If it weren't part of an ongoing attempt to mold unrealistic bodies in fashion marketing, it would almost be funny," Ethical Adam wrote.
According to Jezebel, "the worst, most horrible part of this...is that this product is for their junior's line. This is what is being marketed and pushed on young girls- this absurd image of a crotch that absolutely does not and cannot happen naturally."
Target released an apology on Tuesday for the pictures.
"It was an unfortunate error on our part and we apologize," Target spokesman Evan Miller told ABC News. "We removed the image from our site and we're working to get a new image up there."
