There's nothing like five seemingly naked hippies running through a parking lot to attract attention. And that's just what Denise Sweeney was counting on.

Sweeney owns A Little Bit Hippy, a clothing and accessories store in Towers Shopping Center catering to those with an affinity for the styles of the Summer of Love. With help from her son, a cinematographer in Charlottesville, she created a commercial featuring five people -- Sweeney included -- piling out of her iconic Volkswagen and rushing into the store. Looking naked.

"People ask me, 'How in the world could you be out completely naked in the parking lot?'," Sweeney said.

The answer is obvious: attention.

After seeing the ad, she said, "People literally stop in who would never stop in and say, 'Hey, I saw your commercial.' "

If you want to check out the video, no worries -- the nudity is implied and isn't full by any means; there are the traditional blackout boxes covering the naughty bits.

The effect, though, is about the same.

Sweeney bought some airtime for her commercial on the local Fox station as well as on Cox cable. But then, on the advice of a friend, she also uploaded the ad to YouTube, the uber-popular video-sharing site, naming the clip "Find Your Groove, Man."

Since it debuted in early April, the video has been viewed more than 600 times. That may not seem like much, but those are 600 people who chose to watch it, as opposed to a typical television commercial which is more often than not an excuse to use the rest room.

Sweeney's commercial became, in a small sense, what's called a "viral video" -- that is, it spread by word of mouth as friends told friends about it.

Thanks to that, it was able to reach a much larger audience. After all, to catch it on television you'd need to be watching the right channel at the right time.

But on YouTube it's always there.

Sure, she said, not everyone was thrilled. "We had at least two people who said they couldn't believe we were naked," Sweeney said, "and said they'd never shop at the store again."

But those are by far the exception. "People love it. It's been a real hit," she said.

Sweeney is used to prudishness. This isn't the first time the store has used nudity -- at least the presumption thereof -- to attract attention. Several years ago, Sweeney's youngest son, an actor now living in Los Angeles, starred in a commercial for the store in which he appeared to be wearing only a peace sign.

Homemade videos, spread through sites such as YouTube and Google Video, are becoming more and more common, and not just for sharing the latest movie of little Suzy learning to ride a bike. Commercials for stores, products or just ideas -- whether official or unofficial -- are sprouting up all over, from homemade trailers for "Transformers" to Dove's "Evolution" commercial giving a behind-the-scenes look at what actually makes a supermodel super.

Jason "Blue" Herbert, master electrician for Mill Mountain Theatre, drummed up a bit of good will for Roanoke -- intentionally or not -- with his video called, simply, "Roanoke 002."

The six-minute movie, which Herbert made one afternoon when he got out of work early, simply consists of images taken around the city's downtown.

"I just decided to take my little camera that I had just gotten and walk around and take some beauty shots," he said. (He used a $99 camcorder he bought on eBay.)

He then posted it to his YouTube account. Since then, it has been viewed almost 3,000 times, and is currently in the top five videos you see when you search the word "Roanoke."

With a few exceptions, it has gotten a positive response, and not just from Roanokers. A woman from Schertz, Texas, who calls herself "Goofyelf" used to hail from Southwest Virginia. "Your video actually made me homesick and I even shed a tear!" she wrote. "Thank you for showing me a glimpse of home on a HOT November Texas day!"

Herbert is also in charge of Mill Mountain Theatre's YouTube presence as well, and he posts videos that include interviews with cast members and time-lapse movies of sets being built. It all helps draw attention to the theater, and it's all part of what Stuart Mease, special projects coordinator for Roanoke, called "nontraditional advertising."

"If you're going to promote any event now, you have to do traditional and nontraditional advertising," he said. "There's a viral component. There's this 'one plus one equals three' thing," meaning that the more ways you offer people to see your message -- print, television or online -- the faster your message will spread.

To help combat what he thought was a negative image of Roanoke, Mease created a video to market the 2006 Career and Lifestyle Fair called "There's Nothing to Do In Roanoke." It showed just the opposite -- that there are plenty of things to do.

"When you did a search on Roanoke [with YouTube], the number one thing that popped up was not something you'd want Roanoke to be known for," he said; videos called "Police Misconduct in Roanoke, Virginia" and "Illegal Street Racing 2 in Roanoke Va" were high on the list.

Mease decided to be proactive with the city's image. "We took our commercial and put it on YouTube, then we sent that link out to a number of people promoting the event," he said. Then the word spread.

Granted, it isn't on the level of the now-famous Lonelygirl15, with her millions of loyal YouTube fans, but for a small city in Southwest Virginia the 3,300-plus viewers was a good haul, and from Mease's view, it's a success.

For his next trick, Mease will be working with WDBJ (Channel 7) on a contest challenging Roanoke-area amateur filmmakers to create their own videos promoting the city's upcoming holiday fair, with the winning entry appearing on television.

For Sweeney and A Little Bit Hippy, even the smattering of complaints is good news. It means people are watching. Maybe naked hippies wasn't their thing, but chances are they won't forget the store.

And as for the big question -- were Sweeney and friends actually in the altogether? -- she isn't saying.

"I let people draw their own conclusions."