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SBC Advertising Sends Aid to Louisiana Client

Columbus, OH (September 23, 2005) – Despite a distance of almost 1,000 miles, SBC Advertising has helped make hurricane relief as close as one "click" away to the employees of its New Orleans-based client - the Oreck Corporation.

SBC has just completed the launch of a specialized web page that will collect and funnel donations to the Oreck Employee Relief Fund. The fund has been created so that Oreck's business partners will have a consolidated, efficient means to make donations to Oreck employees who suffered devastating losses due to Hurricane Katrina. The Oreck Corporation made an initial donation of $500,000.

In addition to developing the web page, SBC employees donated their time to help the marketing department continue its normal operations and responsibilities for ad placements and similar tasks.

"When a disaster of this magnitude happens to anyone you know, it transcends any business relationship. We build personal relationships with all of our clients and we were eager to help Oreck's employees in any way that we could," said David Dennis, president of SBC Advertising.

When the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the Gulf Coast, the Oreck Corporation suffered damage to its corporate headquarters in New Orleans and its only plant in Long Beach, Miss., sustained damage as well. Many of Oreck's Gulf Coast employees suffered severe storm damage to their homes or lost them completely - more than 700 of Oreck's 1200 employees were directly affected by the storm.

Immediately after the storm, Oreck set up temporary, remote locations for call centers and administrative systems in Dallas, Denver and Atlanta. As part of these efforts, Oreck has also set up temporary housing for employees and their families, provided grief counseling and offered claims recovery assistance.

On Sept. 9, the company became one of the first rays of hope in the Gulf Coast repair process as it resumed its manufacturing of the popular 8-pound Oreck vacuum cleaner, floor cleaning products, air purifiers and household and industrial cleaning products in its Long Beach, Miss., plant. Each employee at the plant received a paycheck.

Perhaps most importantly, 500 Oreck employees were able to return to work and start an important step in rebuilding their lives. However, in the wake of a disaster that will cost tens of billions of dollars to repair, much more help is needed.

"We've made some strong initial progress, but Oreck has a long way to go in rebuilding the lives of our employees. We're extremely grateful for the support that we've received from our community and business partners thus far," said Colette Thomas, assistant marketing manager at Oreck.

Those wishing to make a donation can visit (http://www.oreck.com/post-hurricane/employee_fund.cfm). Oreck is covering the administrative costs of the fund, so 100 percent of the donations will go directly to employee aid. Employees trying to reach Oreck should call 888-528-0088.