THE ADVERTISING STANDARDS Authority of Ireland (ASAI) partially upheld complaints against a bank because a child was not properly fastened in his car seat.

The AIB ad for a loan features a young family getting into their new car. The woman is then shown sitting in the driver’s seat looking straight ahead. Her right hand is on the steering wheel, while her left hand releases the handbrake.

The child in the rear of the car is strapped into a forward facing car seat and is wearing a padded coat, something which complainants said was dangerous. The ad has had to be removed until it’s amended.

Some who contacted the ASAI said that the woman did not follow full road traffic protocols when setting off from her home.

The ASAI noted that the complaints dealt with two issues:

First issue: Complainants considered that the child had not been correctly fastened into his car seat as firstly, he was wearing a thick coat, which they said was dangerous in the event of an accident and was contrary to safety recommendations and secondly, the seat belts were too loose on the child. Thirdly some complainants also considered that the child should have been in a rear facing car seat.

Second issue: The complainants considered that the driver had not carried out the necessary safety checks before moving the vehicle.

The complaints’ committee said that the Road Safety Authority’s guidelines advised that a forward-facing seat’s harness should be tight enough so that only two fingers could fit between a child’s breastbone and the harness. It said that the harness appeared to be “sufficiently slack so that it appeared to be outside the RSA’s recommended safety guideline”.

With regard to the wearing of a thick coat, the RSA advises motorists that blankets should be used instead of bulky jackets in winter so the child can be tended to more quickly in the event of an accident.

The committee noted that there was no legal requirement in the matter but that it was not in line with the recommended safety guidelines.

The ASAI ruled that the depiction of a child’s thick coat together with a child seat harness that appeared to be loose according to appropriate guidelines was in breach of advertising codes.

The complaint regarding poor driving skills was rejected as the ad was the footage shown was a ‘snapshot’ of the full event and was used to portray the moment the driver received her new car.

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