Trevose, PA -- Florida hurricane victims are suffering through another deluge, but this time it's promotional products.

After hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne washed away all but the shirts off many folks' back, Advertising Specialty Institute, an information hub for the promotional items industry, asked its members to send relief items like t-shirts, ball caps, coffee mugs and stuffed bears that are usually used as corporate giveaways.

More than $750,000 worth of products were donated and then distributed by the Salvation Army.

But the items were left unbranded, and industry insider Richard Kerns says "there was no mercenary angle to it."

In his words, "We didn't' say, 'Oh great, let's send them flashlights and people will run around with our logo on it.'"

Kerns says some people think the advertising industry uses low-end items for giveaways but he says he knows it works because in his words, "We know people like getting something for free."

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