Does sex sell?

Do you think sex sells? As a marketing strategy do you think using the female or male form sells a product (no matter how bad it is). I must admit I think it does under certain circumstances. When you're in bars or clubs you often get the barmaid flirting with the customers etc, sometimes they even buy them a drink, probably because they think she/he actually likes them!

That's just an example, I guess in business sex has always been used to push products. Take FHM (mens magazine in the uk) as a classic example. I probably wouldn't buy something that I really didn't need no matter what pressure I was put under.

What are your views on this?