Huge Carseat Pet Peeve!

[jkpalotay]

Does it drive anyone else CRAZY when everytime a child is pictured in a carseat for an advertisment, the chest clip is either down around their belly button or up on their neck? (And the straps are usually about ready to fall off, they're so loose). This absoluetly drives me nuts... I get so aggravated. What is this teaching all the parents out there who don't know any better? You know, the one's who think the pictures are guides to follow for proper use? And doesn't this fall into the same catagory as crib bedding makers showing off their goods with the quilts draped over the side of the crib? Grrrrr. Thanks for listening to my rant! I just had to get it off my chest. ;)

Kelli
Mommy to Luke (April 2003)

[Splash]

Absolutely. I think the companies should be sued.
E

[Joolsplus2]

Ooooooh yeah, I can't STAND it. Wrong info in website sales blurbs also gets my goat.
And this is probably the *worst* example of all (try not to gag when you see it...and LOTS of us have written to these @$$holes to get them to change this) http://www.mightytite.com/.

www.carseat.org has a "media watch" form that can be filled out...they are always harping on misleading ads and getting them changed :)

Julie
(been gone awhile, moving from CA to VA, but now I'm here and my laptop has been resurrected from the dead :D)

[KrisM]

Wow, that site is amazing. It totally bugs me when I see them wrong in ads, too.

[MamaParis]

Well Geez - you'd think that since they're selling an "unsafe" product that they could at least untwist the straps and tighten them and pull those chest clips up to give them SOME credibility.
Shoot! Those kids look small enough to be RF still anyway! ;)

Wow that was bad! And people look at that and TRUST these people enough to buy the mighty tite?? WOW!


There was an episode of "Meet the barkers" On MTV once that had their little boy FF in his Britax RA (I think) and the straps were soo loose that they were on the side of his arms and shoulders and his chest clip was like at his belly button ... Whats the point of buying a $200 seat if you have no intention of using it correctly?

Oh and there was some kind of ad on TV I saw once - I think it was a car insurance ad - anyway, they have an infant seat FF! An bvious infant seat with the handle and all FF!
I only saw it 2 times and then mysteriously that part was edited out of later versions of that same commercial! THANK GOD!


And BRU ads are FAMOUS for the poor carseat practice pics!
There is ALWAYS at least one kid that has the harnes son too loose o the chest clip too low or harness height too high/low.
I've noticed lately though that they have been taking the kids out of the carseat pics! LOL

[Joolsplus2]

Oh yeah, I remember that FF infant seat...I *think* it was a Mitsubishi ad, and carseat.org harped on them immediately for that extreme faux pas! (There was also an ad for a minivan that showed a kid that NEEDED a booster the first time I saw it, and that shot was edited out the next time I saw it... I don't know for sure, but suspect it was carseat.org behind that, too :D)

I think the worst part of that mightytite page is the kid on the left with the harness below the top slots...that seat is not approved for that use, and that harness could rip right through those unreinforced slots in a crash... fortunately most seats have more slots than just the top reinforced now (thanks to Britax's leadership...) and it's a lot harder to make that mistake, but to the discerning eye, it's a painful sight to see :(
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[mom2binsd]

Also along these lines, how about the kids (usually about 2-3) riding on the motorized Barbie/John Deere mini off road vehicles without a helmet in the ads for TRU!