There is a new face to fashion and, in many cases, it's not a face at all.

From Victoria Beckham's lower half dangling out of a Marc Jacobs shopping bag to the now infamous American Apparel campaigns, the subject matter in today's ads continues to get vaguer, racier and more scantily clad.

Though risqué ads have certainly existed before, advertising overload is forcing companies to do more to stand out.

"Traditionally, marketers design ads to be attention getting. One way to do this is making the ads somewhat unexpected in order to arouse interest, cause people to think about the ad, and as a result, remember it," said Jennifer Chang Coupland, a clinical association professor of marketing.

Surrounded by so much competition and advertising clutter, Coupland said today's marketers are finding that being somewhat unexpected isn't enough.

"Therefore, they push the envelope with shocking ads to gain attention and get people talking," she said. "Word of mouth is a huge benefit [and] sex sells."

The question then becomes: Are these ads successfully advertising the product to their key demographic, or is the product getting lost in the eye-catching marketing?

"I think it's retarded," Larry Chertik (sophomore-marketing) said. "My eyes don't [even] go to the clothing. They go somewhere else."

However, Nancy Miller, a professor at the Laboratory Institute of Marketing College, a fashion and business college in New York City, said she believes the shuffle is a part of the product's appeal.

It's more important for an ad to be memorable than to overtly push its product, she said.

"This form of marketing is effective because it creates buzz," she said. "There are too many fashion ads that tend to look the same. [But] the product is not lost in the shuffle of raciness; [it] is part of the shuffle."

Alye Baer, a sales associate at People's Nation, 126 E. College Ave., sees the effects of the marketing in action. She thinks the ads attract customers, whether they are spicy or not.

"People buy the clothes regardless," she said. "Besides, [the ads] show what the clothes actually look like on people."

Miller said racy ads are not meant to negatively affect those outside their creator's desired demographic.

Advertisers have a specific audience in mind, and that audience won't be put off by some skin.

"We have seen many racy ads before [and] they are the kind mature audiences should see," she said. "I would not want my young daughters to see them, but can I stop them altogether? No, [but] they also don't read the magazines where they are printed."

Even so, Coupland said, those kinds of ads aren't good for society, even if they're only being seen by mature audiences.

They create "cultural clutter," she said, and drew a contrast between sex-infused advertisements and those like the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, which uses advertisements featuring women of all sizes.

Despite the potential for less-than-wholesome marketing, Miller said the ability to appeal to a target group makes racier ads effective.

"I love the Dove ads ... [but] these ads speak to a different audience because the products differ," she said. "A select few fashion companies are able to utilize this risqué form of advertising ... [because] it relates to the product they are trying to sell and the target audience they are trying to reach."