DirecTV under fire for swimsuit model ad

DirecTV is under fire for its newest ad.

The company's campaign featuring Sports Illustrated swimsuit models was meant to be tongue in cheek.

Instead it's backfiring in a big way.

The supermodels spoke out Wednesday morning, defending the satellite provider's new campaign that some say pokes fun at so-called less glamorous gals and glorifies sexy, scantily clad women.

"It is a funny ad; it's supposed to be funny, take it for what it is," model Chrissy Teigen said.

The latest DirecTV ad features Teigen and fellow models Nina Agdal and cover girl Hannah Davis dressed in ways we've never seen them before - as an obsessed cat lady, a cigarette smoking lunch lady, and a big haired mom who all have cable - juxtaposing them against images of the bombshells bearing their bikini bodies.

The ad suggests that the so-called upgraded versions of the women all came with an upgrade from cable to DirecTV.

Social media is stirring. Many women say the ad sends the wrong message.

"People will look at that and say that is not okay, we can't demean the working class," Dr. Robyn Silverman, a body image expert, said.

DirecTV is standing by the ad, telling ABC News overnight "the intention of the ads was to show a fun, tongue-in-cheek example of how DirecTV is superior to cable."

"The problem with these ads, they have nothing to do with direct. They are guilting us into not getting it. These girls are hot, they look phenomenal, but if they don't get DIRECTV, they look pretty awful," Stephen Galloway of The Hollywood Reporter said.

Teigen says she sees no harm in her mega-haired makeunder and makeover.

"We had fun. We had a good time. We didn't mean to be demeaning or degrading or hurt anybody's feelings," Teigen said.