If sex sells, then the second-annual Victoria's Secret Webcast, this time from the French Riviera, should kick off quite a spending spree among online consumers.

After all, it doesn't take a marketing genius to figure out why many online users might want to tune into the company's Web site May 18, for the live broadcast (3 p.m. EST), or tune in later for the archived replay. The show promises a beauteous bevy of scantily clad supermodels cavorting down the runway as part of a marketing effort to hawk bras, panties and other intimate wear.

Did I mention they will be modeling underwear?

Lest you think this is merely another event contributing to the objectification of women, and that the supermodels chosen in no way, shape or form (literally speaking) represent the average woman but rather symbolize an impossible ideal, I note this year's show has an altruistic angle. The cavorting will take place during the annual Cannes Film Festival as part of a benefit gala to raise money for a host of worthwhile charities, says Anne Marie Blaire, director of Internet brand development for Intimate Brands Inc. (IBI), Victoria's Secret parent company.

Unlike last year's inaugural event - a live Webcast held in February featuring scantily clad models cavorting down the runway in New York to hawk underwear - this year's show will allow lingerie admirers the opportunity to get their hands on the goods, so to speak. Blaire says the company has added, with help from e-commerce technology provider Microsoft, a shop-while-watching feature that will let consumers order items modeled during the show. Many of those items will not hit the retailer's 900 stores until late summer.

"We realized the Webcast is just an event," Blaire says. "But our business is about selling our brand, our products. That's why this year the store will be open to customers as they watch the show, and to customers who are not interested in the Webcast."

It's no easy trick. As many interested parties who tried unsuccessfully to log into last year's Webcast found out, online technology can sometimes get in the way of the online experience. Though more than 1.5 million viewers tuned into last year's show, bandwidth woes - and IBI's acknowledgement that it was not quite prepared for the traffic onslaught - left many streaming media viewers steaming. "We had no idea of the volume we would get, from a forecasting perspective, because it was the first time anyone had tried anything like this," says Tim Plzak, director of advanced technology for IBI.

Blaire, Plzak and company have taken great pains to avoid a repeat of that performance. This year, IBI is working with Yahoo! Broadcast to handle the Webcasting logistics and has increased the number of media servers used to redistribute the stream. With the aid of RADWare, it has put in place a load balancing system called the Gatekeeper that will send the overflow of visitors to a special e-lounge containing content from Cannes. It is working with Akamai Technologies to optimize the display of content at the online store and in the lounge, and is making special features available for America Online users - many of whom were unable to tune in last year.

The only thing left is to get online consumers to click the buy button while they watch. If all that cavorting translates into a spike in product sales, it might convince other retailers that online broadcasting can be an effective customer acquisition tool. After all, it works on TV - only they call it an infomercial.