Skims pulls Kim Kardashian ad but denies distorted finger was a Photoshop fail

‘Pretty bad timing for a glitch,’ one fan wrote in response to shapewear company’s explanation

Skims has removed a video ad for its shapewear after fans accused founder Kim Kardashian of Photoshopping her waist smaller in the commercial.

In the ad, which has since gone viral on TikTok, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star, seen lying down while dressed in a bra and underwear, pulled the band of her undergarment up to show how it retains its shape.

However, as many fans have pointed out, the clip then sees Kardashinan’s finger distort as she runs it up her thigh and over her hip and waist.

“You know what else bounces right back? Your finger after it completely distorts,” TikTok user Alex Kelly narrated the commercial in a video posted to the app, which she captioned: “Who approved this editing?” and which has since been viewed more than 24.6m times.

The unnatural positioning of Kardashian’s finger prompted many others to accuse the reality star and her shapewear brand of Photoshopping the commercial, with some calling out the brand for promoting body inclusivity while seemingly editing the 40-year-old’s body.

“This is so unfortunate because the whole message of the line is supposed to be inclusivity of all bodies and people. Dang,” one person wrote, while another commented: “They set a beauty standard that they can’t even meet.”

Following the Photoshop accusations, Skims pulled the video, while denying that the distortion shown in the ad was the result of editing.

“The Skims commercial that aired last week featuring the Fits Everybody collection did initially have an error as a result of the video losing its quality during the uploading process,” a Skims spokesperson told Page Six. “Immediately after it was noticed by the team, the video was pulled, and the glitch-free version was uploaded and ran for the remainder of the time on air. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused Kim and our customers.”

The company’s explanation for the error did not convince everyone, however,  with Kelly noting in the comments under her TikTok video that it was “pretty bad timing for a ‘glitch’”.

The incident is not the family’s first experience facing backlash over edited images and videos, as Kardashian’s sister Khloe recently found herself the subject of controversy after rushing to wipe an unedited photo from the internet.

At the time, the 36-year-old opened up about her decision in a lengthy Instagram post, in which she admitted that “the pressure, constant ridicule and judgement my entire life to be perfect and to meet other’s standards of how I should look has been too much to bear”.

The Independent has contacted Skims for comment.