THE FUTURE WORLD CHAMPIONS? Ideals for upbringing represented in contemporary European advertisements.

The general European discourse of childhood presents children as innocent and vulnerable, but within this discourse different images of 'the perfect child' exist. In this article ideals for upbringing are studied as they are represented in French, German and Dutch printed advertisements for children's products. The sample consists of 290 advertisements collected in the period 1995-8 from women's magazines, and the analysis is both quantitative and qualitative. Different interpretations of play, intellectual development and well-being are central in the ads. The differences found in the ads point to the fact that significant differences exist with regard to what `good' childhood is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]