Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 19, 1993                   TAG: 9305190077
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COMPANIES JUST CAN'T RESIST A PLACE TO TUCK AN AD

That's not quite a real image, but it's close. If there's access to be bought, there's a company willing to pay for it.

Notice the advertising inserts in your cable television bills? Those Domino's pizza coupons aren't there as a gift from the cable operator. Advertisers pay to get their material included, about enough to cover half of the TV company's mailing costs.

You can't even use some blood-pressure machines without being confronted by ads. The machine at one Roanoke Valley supermarket boasts this intriguing combination: Nutri Grain cereal, Sudafed sinus medication, Monistat 7 vaginal itch relief and Lipton ice tea.

Timm Crull, chairman and chief executive officer of Nestle USA, wrote in the May 3 Advertising Age magazine: "There are too many players courting too little business, whether you sell advertising or chocolate bars."

That's why ads are coming at us from everywhere. Last year, the nation's top 200 advertised brands spent $11.7 billion to get our attention, according to Advertising Age.

Know the meaning of some of the terms used to describe used or less-than-first-quality merchandise?

The Better Business Bureau Code of Advertising says any item that was previously used ought to be clearly labeled as such. Some of the words for this are clear in meaning - pre-owned, repossessed, secondhand, used. Less clear are such descriptions as "reconditioned," "rebuilt" or "as is."

Here's what the BBB says:

\ Rebuilt should mean a product has been disassembled, reconstructed and repaired, with broken or worn parts replaced.

\ Reconditioned refers to a product that has been repaired, adjusted or otherwise put in satisfactory condition without rebuilding.

\ As is means the buyer receives the product in the condition in which it is displayed at the place of sale.

\ Second, irregular or\ imperfect mean the item is flawed or was rejected by the manufacturer because it was below standard.

There certainly have been plenty of "seconds" and "irregulars," and "overruns" and "closeouts" for sale in the Roanoke Valley on three of the past four weekends.

A former Nissan car dealership on Virginia 419 near Tanglewood Mall has been a temporary sportswear shop and could become an outlet for a Roanoke manufacturer.

For two weekends, the goods were from Virginia Mills, formerly Twin City Textiles, of Roanoke.

"Depending on how well it works out, we would like to do it three or four times a year," said Maggie Iseley, a spokeswoman for the company. Last weekend, the T-shirts and similar goods were from a Martinsville company that buys overruns and seconds and resells them.