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Victoria's 'Net Secret is out
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February 2, 1999: 5:41 p.m. ET
30-second Super Bowl ad for Victoria's Secret draws a million hits in one hour
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Victoria's Secret just can't keep quiet about it - the old saw that "sex sells" may hold true better in cyber-space than in the real world.
The lingerie vendor famous for top-dollar models sporting its wares said its 30-second commercial during Sunday's Super Bowl led to a frenetic rush to desktop computers almost immediately after it aired.
VictoriasSecret.com received more than 1 million hits within the first hour after the ad spot aired promoting a Wednesday web-cast of its Spring Fashion Show, the company said.
"Victoria's Secret's first-ever Super Bowl commercial... is credited with creating the most heavily visited site in Internet history," Intimate Brands Inc., the parent of Victoria's Secret, said in a statement late Monday.
If the sex-and-sport display by Victoria's Secret during the Super Bowl is any sign, the Internet's coming-of-age could hint that boom times are ahead for the seller of g-strings and lace undies.
"For viewers to leave their TV sets during the Super Bowl to log on to the Victoria's Secret's site is amazing," said Ed Razek, the company's president of brand and creative services.
"It's huge news for the web, huge news for the computer, huge news for the Information Age," added Razek.
Thousands of web-surfers hoping to log onto the site experienced delays or were frustrated in their attempts altogether, the company said.
The ad spot featured models Karen Mulder, Laetitia Costa, Stephanie Seymour and Tyra Banks parading down a fashion-show runway.
Victoria's Secret first disrobed its new e-commerce site on Dec. 4. In the subsequent holiday shopping season, sales to men shot up to 60 percent of all sales - up from 15 percent in previous years via catalog and store sales.
While some top Internet sites such as Amazon.com (AMZN) have not yet made a profit through e-commerce, Victoria's Secret's site "was profitable from day one," Razek said.
Shares of Intimate Brands (IBI) climbed 15/16 to 39-15/16 on Tuesday following the announcement. 
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Victoria's Secret
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