The Child as a Signifier
of
The Future
We were all young once. Most of us can recall a little of our childhood from time to time. Children often remind us what it was like to be young; we see our younger-selves in children today. Thus, we can also see the future adults in these children; the people who will one day replace us as the movers and shakers, the leaders and participants, of tomorrow's society.
This concept is heavily utilized in advertising as children are used in many advertisements to symbolize the future and what it will become both via the child (future leader) and the product (what the future leader will use). By using children as representatives of future components of active society, advertisers are also able to stress the point that we need to guide children in progressive directions, for they will soon be making decisions for us. Thus, advertisers can transfer the reference to the future from the child to the product, and can promote an ideology or concept (attached to a product) by referring to the child as an object of social responsibility.
World
of Advertising