Surf goes mainstream, pushing sales but straining credibility. (Media Technology).

Bikini-clad babes and their surfer boyfriends jump out of a pickup truck and run down the beach toting their boards. Hip music plays in the background.

It's a scene straight out of Orange County. Only the sand is from the Midwest.

The footage is part of Target Corp.'s new television campaign, "Living in Red." In the spot, the surfing teens are cast in Target colors red and white.

The imagery smacks of Orange County's beach culture and the bread and butter of its apparel industry, surf wear. The retailer hopes teens will flock to its stores to shop for swimsuits over the spring break.

"Yeah! Drive the market, Target," said Dave Hollander, co-owner and president of Torrance-based Becker Surfboards Inc., which has stores in Huntington Beach and Corona del Mar.

It's the latest example of surf gone mainstream -- and everyone wants a piece of the action. But is surfwear's ascendance the death knell for an industry that thrives on hip? Designers and retailers are straddling the fence.

"It's definitely getting overexposed," Hollander said. "But at least this time it's being over-exposed tastefully."

Signs of interest are everywhere. New visitors to Hollander's Web site, beckersurf.com, went from 10,000 to 17,000 a day in eight months. American Express Co. recently shot footage for a commercial at Becker's factory in Torrance. And Hollander said designers from JC Penney Co. dropped $1,200 on branded surf clothes at Becker's Malibu store and asked "a lot of questions."

"It's what they call viral marketing," Hollander said. "The world is interested and we've got it."

The last time surf was this hot was in the late 1980s, when "anyone who could get a bolt of neon" and make clothing called themselves a surf company, said Tony Cherbak, an analyst in the consumer products group at Deloitte & Touche LLP's Costa Mesa office.

When the neon craze died, the "industry got chopped at the knees," said Randy Hild, senior vice president at Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. "Because all we had was a one-trick pony. All we had was men's and neon."

This time around, things might be different.

"Quiksilver, Billabong, Volcom, Hurley -- these are all global lifestyle brands," said Dick Baker, chief executive at Irvine-based Ocean Pacific Apparel Corp. "They have the legs right now to continue to grow exponentially."

That will serve them well when the surf craze crashes. And it will crash, Hild said. But that hasn't stopped some in the local surf crowd from name-calling in the meantime.

Particularly when it comes to companies such as Target selling cheap surf clothes designed by Santa Monica-based Mossimo Inc. Target has exclusive rights to make and sell Mossimo clothes in the U.S.

Or Abercrombie & Fitch Co.'s surf-inspired retail store, Hollister Co. The chain sells garb similar to surf brands at a cheaper price. "They're poseurs," said Joel Cooper, chief executive of Irvine-based Lost Enterprises.

Added Quiksilver's Hild: "There's a side of me and our company that's very concerned that they have ripped us off and they are potentially doing damage to our identity."

At the same time, Hild said, Abercrombie's Hollister could help Quiksilver and surf brands penetrate new terrain: Middle America.

"They're taking advantage of an opportunity that we as an industry haven't focused on," Hild said. 'The industry has been talking about this ever since Hollister woke us up."

Hollister and others are targeting the same group as Orange County's surf brands: teens who don't surf but wish they did. "Maybe we won't have as much growth in the Midwest because Hollister and others are capitalizing on that," Lost's Cooper said.

The surf crowd also is using the media to help propel the momentum and keep its image "authentic."

Irvine-based Billabong USA sponsored the summer surf flick "Blue Crush," which helped drive the company's U.S. sales. Quiksilver launched an entertainment unit that's created an action sports television show and a new book series about girl surfers, among other moves.

The image that Orange County's surf crowd perpetuates will help fuel their demand.

"They've created this desire on grassroots marketing," Cherbak said. "That's what creates value. The customer is going to sort out the me-too players."