Among those who said they felt shut out was the Consumer Federation of America, the nation's largest consumer-advocacy group.

Nader is something of a role model at L0pht, a confederation of eight young hackers who position themselves, incredibly enough, as a consumer-advocacy group.

State support for the "household model," with a private room for each resident, grew out of conversations with consumer-advocacy group like AARP, Mr. Kenny said.

But Caroline Smith DeWaal, the director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer-advocacy group, expressed concern over the action.

In general, consumer-advocacy groups say toys are not safe enough, while manufacturers contend that most injuries are a result of misuse and a lack of proper supervision.

If and when this occurs, the car magazines and the consumer-advocacy groups will start doing much of Subaru's advertising for them.

But the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer-advocacy group, warns that many varieties of popcorn have as much fat - 60 percent - as potato chips.

Harvey Rosenfield, chairman of the consumer-advocacy group that promoted Proposition 103, dismissed the industry's warnings as exaggerated, calling threats to leave the state "standard terrorist tactics."

Having moved here in 1987 with her husband and 3-year-old daughter, Ms. Haas soon joined a local chapter of Families for Safe Food, a consumer-advocacy group.

But some consumer-advocacy groups have major doubts about whether the seals truly signify the level of protection that people want.