Hey, Marc Dann! Is this deceptive baby products sales tactics?

My wife and I are expecting our first child.  As any expecting parents, we're nervous, excited, and scared.  So earlier this week, we opened our mailbox and received an invite to a "Getting Ready for Baby" show that requires both parents to attend for free and to get a complimentary gift pack.  The stated purpose of the show is to hand out "information on preventing baby injuries."

The mailing lists the topics as: old & new cribs, crib bedding, poisons, car seats, high chairs, walkers, infant seats, burns, recalled baby products lists, and what baby products are necessary.

The mailing states the show is sponsored by the "Advisory Council on Child Safety - Babee Tenda Ohio."  The mailing was postmarked from St. Louis, Missouri.

What's the Advisory Council on Child Safety?  According to their website:

The Advisory Council on Child Safety is made up of a group of public speakers from all over the United States. We discuss and compile a vast amount of information concerning child safety, product recalls, accidents, injuries, new products and old products.

The above information is distributed to the public through baby safety classes. The funding for these classes is derived from the sales of Babee-Tenda furniture. No one ever has to buy anything at these classes, but the furniture is offered for sale.

And what's Babee-Tenda?  Of course, a manufacturer of baby care products and furniture.  And for $5,000-$10,000, they'll send you the display equipment for your seminar and cover the costs for your initial shows.

And here's how the seminar allegedly works, they spend the first half of the seminar talking about how other manufacturer's products have a history of being recalled, dangerous, and defective.  Some attendees have questioned whether the information presented is outdated or misleading.  Babee-Tenda appears to have a very loyal following from its customers, and there's no evidence that they produce a shoddy or unsafe product.

However, of the attendees comments I could review, people described the show as a high pressure sales pitch which is done in a way where potential customers cannot compare Babee Tenda's products and prices to others.  As a result, Babee Tenda products tend to sell for substantially higher prices and some customers questioned whether they supposed additional safety qualities of Babee Tenda products justify their costs.

Does anyone have any experience with this?  Frankly, I'm shocked that a mailing I read as being about infant safety from what I thought was a non-profit consumer safety organization is, in reality, a sales pitch designed to play to new parents worst fears.  I wouldn't be as offended if the mailing at least put parents-to-be on notice that it is a sales event, not a non-profit groups program to educate on infant safety.

Shouldn't a company have enough confidence in their product that they don't feel it's necessary to use such misleading tactics, though?