ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240018
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The French mineral water company Perrier said Tuesday it has decided to remove billboards denounced as sexist by women's groups.
The billboards showed three topless women with Perrier bottle caps over their nipples and the word ``wonderbulles'' - French slang for ``wonder bubbles.''
``It shocked some people,'' said Eve Magnan, spokeswoman at Perrier's headquarters in Paris. ``It is not company policy to shock.''
The European Women's Lobby, an umbrella group of women's organizations, issued a statement last week calling the ads ``an insult to all women'' and urging a boycott of Perrier products.
Perrier initially defended the ads as a spoof on Wonderbra advertisements and 1950s pin-up girls.
The month-long ad campaign, which was limited to Belgium, was due to end next Wednesday. - Associated Press ValuJet attendants want execs out
NEW YORK - ValuJet's flight attendants union wants the federal government to remove the airline's two top executives before allowing it to resume flying.
The Association of Flight Attendants claims ValuJet's chairman, Robert Priddy, and president, Lewis Jordan, are either incapable or unwilling to run a safe airline.
``This management team bears full responsibility for ValuJet's horrendous safety record,'' AFA president Patricia Friend said. ``They have proven they cannot run an airline safely, and the DOT [Department of Transportation] must take action.''
ValuJet filed a plan with the FAA earlier this month that called for shifting maintenance and engineering supervision from outside contractors to ValuJet employees and increasing pay and training. - Associated Press Des Champs to expand again
Des Champs Laboratories Inc. , a Natural Bridge Station designer and manufacturer of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment, will convert a former high school building into a laboratory for company research.
Rockbridge County agreed Monday to trade the school property to the company for a $160,000 investment in the sewer system serving Natural Bridge Station, said David Kleppinger of the Rockbridge Area Economic Development Commission.
This will be Des Champs' second major expansion in Natural Bridge. It will spend $1 million to $2 million on the renovation, Kleppinger said, and create about 20 permanent jobs. - Staff report
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