ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020019
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
NEW YORK - The makers of Budweiser have upset some Native Americans with a commercial run only in Britain that shows an American Indian truck driver stopping for a beer at a bar with other American Indians.
Critics say the commercial perpetuates the stereotype of a drunken Indian. But Anheuser-Busch officials say it shows American Indians as hard-working and independent to an audience unfamiliar with the stereotype.
The ad was part of a long-running Budweiser campaign in Britain called ``The Genuine Article,'' which featured people sharing the beer's American roots. Past ads focused on tap dancers, blues musicians and jazz trumpeters.
The St. Louis-based brewer said American Indians were featured in the latest ads because Britons viewed them as ``a perfect example of authentic America.'' They said the ad kept Budweiser sales on a path of double-digit percentage growth.
But some Indian advocacy groups in the United States believed the commercial was insensitive to the problem of alcoholism among American Indians.
Steven J. Burrows, president and chief operating officer of Anheuser-Busch International, said. ``We certainly didn't produce an ad to offend anyone; and if it did, we are sorry about that.''
-Associated Press
Yokohama to idle 44 from production
Yokohama Tire Corp. said Thursday it will idle 44 production workers at its Salem tire factory, part of a previously announced move to slow production to match a slump in tire sales.
Last month, the company said it would eliminate up to 50 jobs from its 875-worker production force. The plant, which makes 18,500 tires a day for cars and light trucks, needs to trim production 3 percent, said Kelly Teenor, spokesman for the Fullerton, Calif.-based company.
The layoffs will be phased over the next several weeks, based on production schedules, she said. Affected workers were told earlier this week.
Yokohama also said it would close the plant next week as part of the effort to adjust inventory.
-Staff report
Smoking's no drag at Motorola now
CHICAGO - Motorola Inc. no longer plans to penalize employees who smoke on company property.
After criticism from civil liberties groups, the company dropped the harshest provisions of an anti-smoking policy that took effect Thursday at two cellular-phone plants.
Motorola had planned to fire employees caught smoking more than three times on company property, even if they were in their own cars.
The American Civil Liberties Union had called the plan ``morally tainted,'' and the National Smokers Alliance said it was the ``most reprehensible policy we have encountered.''
-Associated Press
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines KEYWORDS: JOBCHEKby CNB