Get 'Em Young

There's a billboard on Sixth Avenue and West 4th Street for Gap Kids that reads, "It Starts with Good Jeans." The advertisement plays off of a parents' desire to provide the best for his or her child(ren.) The wide majority of products marketed to parents for children under 3 stress the notion of buying a product not for some narcissistic consumerism but for the baby's well-being. The parent's responsibility towards the child is probed; the advertisement asks, "Don't you want your child to be well-dressed? Healthy? Happy? A functional adult, later in life?"

In this Michelin ad, buying tires is not about your car or your travels, but about the helpless child that is in the car - the child that YOU, the parent, are responsible for. Here, the precious baby, sitting only in a diaper to stress his innocence, looks into the camera, as if asking for protection.

This coke ad is actually fake, though you wouldn't know it by the typicality of the techniques it uses. On one hand, it stresses the link between the child's health and cola drinking. On the other hand, it romanticizes the relationship between the mother and child, suggesting that a mother's bond to her child may grow through the purchase and use of the product.

This Johnson & Johnson ad, however, IS real, and displays a happy baby with no soap in her eyes. Again, both the child's experience in the shower/bath, as well as the parent who has to wash them, is commented on. Not only will the child will enjoy the non-irritating chemicals, so will the parent - as his or her job in cleaning the baby will be easier and more pleasant.