Bob Parsons likes the word salacious but when you talk about his Go Daddy commercials, please, do use something stronger, he prefers it.

"I love it," said the domain registrar and site hosting company's founder and CEO. "That way I know we have your attention."

Attention, negative and positive, is exactly what Parsons is getting but more specifically it's the star of his ad spots, 27-year-old Danica Patrick, who people can't stop talking about.

As the company's Go Daddy girl, we've seen the open-wheel star and now aspiring NASCAR driver in the shower, draped under a towel and most recently in her underwear.

“

To make an imprint in this sport you have to be one of the guys and gain respect that way.

”

-- ALLI OWENS

Parsons, who sponsors Patrick's No. 7 Nationwide Series entry, will tell you the commercials are meant to be funny, edgy and slightly inappropriate, but that Patrick is always playing it "straight" and never the girl willing to rip her clothes of to be a Go Daddy girl.

Patrick is one of a handful of female athletes choosing to use femininity and sexuality to further their careers and garner exposure for their respective sports these days. It gains the ladies attention and sponsorship opportunities they might not otherwise have, but at the same time, it opens the athletes up for biting criticism from fans and peers.

Former NASCAR driver Erin Crocker, who grew up with older brothers, said she would never get away with being photographed in scant attire and ARCA racer Alli Owens said you'll never find her "half-naked in a fire suit."

Some women complain Patrick is furthering the objectification of women and is not behaving as a role model should in the eyes of the teenage girls following NASCAR, a homespun sport steeped in tradition. Male critics gripe racers race and models belong on the runway, not pit road.

For whatever reason, they don't believe Patrick can have it both ways; pose in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition and be taken seriously on the track.

"The thing that confounds everyone is that she is breathtakingly beautiful and she has skill," Parsons said. "People have a hard time with that."

Furthermore, Parsons said Patrick shouldn't be criticized for simply leveraging her assets.

So if you've got it flaunt it, right?

That's a mentality some women embrace at an early age, but not all of them grow up to become female athletes whose image and persona become mainstays in our American culture.

"To make an imprint in this sport you have to be one of the guys and gain respect that way," said Owens, a 20-year-old native of Florida. "And at the end of the day I wouldn't want a 12-year-old girl to have a poster of my cleavage in her room. That is not a symbol of female strength or empowerment."

Parsons said that's nothing more than female jealousy.

"I'll tell you what. They wish they could exploit their sexuality all the way to the bank. America is a free country. It's OK for a man to pose without a shirt showing off his muscles but if a woman expresses herself we want to push her back and cover her up."

Fans of Patrick applaud her marketing strategies and say her technique is smart and savvy.

Experts commend Parsons for making a female racer the face of its advertising campaign; something that should have been done years ago.

The Go Daddy girl

Parsons first noticed Patrick in 2005 during her rookie season while leading laps in the Indianapolis 500.

“

I couldn't believe the guts and spunk she had and how pretty she was. She was purely in a man's world handing it to them.

”

-- BOB PARSONS

"I couldn't believe the guts and spunk she had and how pretty she was. She was purely in a man's world handing it to them baby," Parsons recalled. "The next year we needed a spokesperson, a celebrity spokesperson, and I read about her and wrote her name down on a piece of paper. I handed it to my VP of marketing. I said 'here is who you should reach out to' and she did. Danica had heard about Go Daddy, liked it and now it's a marriage of like-minded people."

In 2005 Go Daddy ran its first and now infamous Super Bowl commercial with Candice Michelle, the original Go Daddy Girl.

At that point their market share was 16 percent. A young company, they were struggling with identification and helping consumers to understand their business and product.

"What we do is complicated to explain in a 30 second commercial, domain names is hard to explain, so we decided to make a commercial edgy and inappropriate as possible so people would go to GoDaddy.com to see what we do," Parson said. "The spoof on Janet Jackson's bra cup, that idea not only worked it was a home run out of the park in remote parking."

The week after the commercial ran, the company's market share shot up to 25 percent, Parsons said.

Danica signed with Go Daddy in 2006 and appeared in her first commercial for the 2007 Super Bowl.

So what is the motivation behind the "salacious" campaigns? Simply put, "We do it because it works. It not only works but it works in spades," Parsons said.

Sports Illustrated

Male critics don't believe Patrick can have it both ways; pose in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition and be taken seriously on the track. Women complain she is not behaving as a role model should in the eyes of teenage girls following NASCAR.

Patrick the brand

Patrick's brand extends well beyond Go Daddy. Her managers at IMG Worldwide are charged with making that happen.

In addition to being somewhat of a sex symbol in motorsports, Patrick is partnered with brands such as Mattel, the Got Milk? campaign and appeared in Shape magazine.

"You have to be all-American and pretty wholesome to be considered or affiliated with those iconic brands," said Mark Dyer, senior vice president of strategic planning and development for IMG.

"Danica has a real balance, moving forward, with the partners she is affiliated with," he added. "Our branding position with her is a beautiful revolution."

Carl Edwards in Men's Health, '06.

And just like Carl Edwards has gotten a lot of mileage out of promoting his washboard stomach, Dyer points out; Patrick too uses her good looks and fashion sense to build her brand.

"As long as it is in good taste there's nothing wrong that," he added.

But what about those images in FHM magazine Patrick posed for in 2003?

"She never committed any big transgressions and as she has gained more notoriety in her career she has become very conscious of what her image is and what she wants it to be," Dyer said.

Translation: What you do in your 20s is not the same thing you do in your 30s.

"We've talked about being aware of the younger females who look up to her especially being a part-time NASCAR driver," he added.

Permanent images

Regrettable or not, the images from the men's magazine are on the Internet forever, the same lesson parents preach to young girls today.

Female ARCA racer Leilani Munter is more than familiar with the lecture. The now 34-year-old appeared in FHM wearing a revealing silky robe. It was the same year Patrick appeared in the magazine.

"I wish I could delete those pictures now but it was what I thought I had to do at the time and it got me an opportunity to race," Munter recalled.

The following year FHM sponsored Munter's Late Model car at Texas Motor Speedway where she finished in the top five.

Admittedly, Munter said the photo shoot was difficult.

"We got into a fight during the shoot when I refused to wear what they wanted me to wear. They almost canceled the shoot. It worked out because they came back and sponsored my car but I didn't have any money, I was working at a racing school for $10 an hour. I did what I could to get some exposure."

Today, Munter, who is still racing, said provocative pictures are off the table. She is sponsored only by green companies who fall in line with her environmentally friendly platform.

"But you know everyone uses what they have at the time," she said. "Some are wealthy and others have parents cutting checks for race teams. I didn't have that so we all have to use what we have to get the attention of sponsors. Then it is up to you to perform on the track."

Which is the bottom line for Patrick, whether she chooses to pose in a bathing suit for SI or a zipped up firesuit. None of it matters if the performance is not there and only time will tell if she can become the total package for NASCAR like she has become for the IndyCar Series.

"Danica's looks didn't help her finish 3rd at the Indianapolis 500," Munter said. "But they may have helped get her to NASCAR."