How ethical is using sex in your business?

Some companies don't care what they are promoting but they get a model to display her cleavage to sell it. GoDaddy is the finest example of such marketing but they also provide quality so it doesn't matter what marketing they apply. However, we all come across many products and services in our daily lives where a product is completely irrelevant to its marketing.

I started this thread because a few minutes ago, I opened the website of a new host. It had very cheap plans for its customers and the site is brand new. 0 PR and hardly any backlinks although its age was 9. The plans are attractive enough for someone low on budget or a newbie without much knowledge of the hosting world. Yet, there I see a girl wearing a halter top trying to make you stay on the page.

Thanks to Fiverr and other freelancing sites, we can easily get such photos and testimonials to work for us but would you really use it in your business? Fake testimonials are abound in IM and hype rules marketing. If your product is not quality then isn't it direct targeting of the customer's wallet rather than his trust? Most of us entered IM so that we could lead the life we wanted without having to spend a chunk of our lives on the office desks under a pessimistic boss. If such means to grab attention are used and ultimately nothing but some money and a dissatisfied customer is gained then does that not push you back towards that office life because sooner or later a business built on such foundations ought to collapse.

I've studied Marketing in college and I know that success of an organization heavily relies on its relationships and that is what we were taught almost in every class in different ways. A business sustains and goes long term only when you gain trust. An unhappy customer isn't just the closing of a revenue stream but also a red flag for many prospects. Word-of-mouth is the best form of marketing because of the weight it carries. You can spend millions on your advertising campaigns but if the target customer hears something negative about you from someone he trusts, all that money goes in vain.

Instead of gaining attention of people with a help of a bikini model, why don't we save that money of hiring and let our happy clients do the promotion for us. It takes time and patience but it is all worth it. The former can get you loads of visitors whereas the latter carries a high number of the targetted traffic. What would you prefer? 16,000 random visitors or 2000 targeted?

Maybe this thread completely deviated from its root but I just wanted to remind everyone here that winning customers is more important than winning money. And that is so not just for the sake of ethics but also for the sales as a happy customer is a repeat customer as well.

Regards
Ali