Red Cross PSA banners

The Advertising Council will introduce a series of national public service ads for TV, radio, and online to drive traffic to the Red Cross website (www.redcross.org ) to secure donations in support of relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, DM News reports. Omnicom's ad agency GSD&M created disaster-relief online ads pro bono in only two days. All ads will run in time and space donated by media.

Search engines and search optimization companies are also helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina by optimizing the websites of relief organizations to boost donations, along with making donations of their own, writes DM News.

SEMcares.com, set up by search firm InfuseCreative.com to let search marketing and optimization firms provide help regarding the recent tsunami disaster, is helping again by matching search optimization and pay-per-click firms with relief organizations that need help maximizing their site to get more donations for Katrina victims.

Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, AOL.com and MSN participate in SEMcares. Yahoo has also raised $828,000 for relief through its network, and it along with other search engines is featuring donation-site and news links on their home pages.

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the National Association of Broadcasters have asked their members to air the PSA ads for the Red Cross. FastChannel Network has committed to digitally distributing the radio and TV spots.